Redemption day for Greinke

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 9, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

Even though Zack Greinke doesn’t think he has to be redeemed today, Arizona fans might feel differently. It was, after all, the poor start by the $34,000,000 dollar pitcher that put the team in such a bind because they had to use Robbie Ray in the play-in game instead of having him ready to face the Dodgers fresh for game one.

Greinke had been just about unbeatable at home this year

Split    W L  ERA GS    IP  WHIP  SO9 SO/W
Home    13 1 2.87 18 116.0 0.957 10.2 5.70
Away     4 6 3.65 14  86.1 1.228  8.8 3.82

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/9/2017.

but on Wednesday Night, with a 6 – 0 lead, the Rockies drove Greinke from the game in the fourth inning and the Diamondback pitching staff has been playing catch up ever since.

The Diamondbacks signed Greinke to that ridiculous contract for games like Wednesday and tonight. Will he deliver for them?

Yu Darvish was acquired by the Dodgers to be the right-hand man to Clayton Kershaw. They didn’t need Yu during the regular season but they need him tonight.  Yu could be adding millions to his free agent case the deeper he can pitch the Dodgers into the postseason. Given how starters are being used, you should probably expect to see Yu for only 5 – 6 innings at most.

The Dodgers have a chance to be the only playoff team to sweep a series and it would behoove them to do so.  This is a chance to cut off the head of the snake before he can find a way to deliver a lethal bite.