Greinke Continues to Struggle

The All-Star break probably can't get here quickly enough for Zack Greinke—the pitcher whose young career took an odd twist a couple of months into the season after he'd been sailing along. He certainly wasn't piling up victories, but that had more to do with an inept offense than anything. Back then, everybody in baseball knew that Greinke was headed for good things, maybe even great things.

So, what happened between May and July? How did Greinke go from a guy with an ERA hovering around 3.00 to twice that number in July? His experiment with throwing slow curves because they were "cool" and his attempt to throw batting practice fastballs just to see if he could get hitters out backfired on him. He seems to have fallen in love with his ability. No doubt, he has unbelievable ability. And he's probably also heard that repeatedly over the years—so much so that he thought he could probably do anything he wanted to on the mound and be successful.

By now, he knows that isn't true. But returning to old form hasn't been easy. Bell wants him to throw more fastballs early in the count and once his fastball is established, then to work in his slow curve and off speed stuff. Sounds like sage advice. But last night, when Greinke was on the ropes, Bell said that Greinke wasn't aggressive enough. Gotay's mishandling of a potential double-play ball didn't help Greinke's cause, but to Greinke's credit, he acknowledged that good pitchers get around fielding mistakes. The Royals lost 5-4, dropping the first game of the series with the Twins.

Having Sweeney back in the line up helped keep us in the game. He went 3-for-4 and had 2 RBI. But his awkward slide into second base after pounding a ball off the center field wall made everybody cringe. After falling to his knees and covering his head, he shifted most of his weight onto his injured left arm and he grimaced in pain. The All-Star break will do Sweeney a lot of good. Yeah, he'll actually be in the All-Star game, but he'll probably only see one at bat. Let's hope his body heals up a little over the break.

Tonight, J.P. Howell (1-3, 7.77 ERA) goes against Joe Mays (5-3, 3.84). Let's hope that Howell can keep us in the game…and let's hope that this is the last time he'll be called upon to pitch in the rotation for a while. With BA coming off the DL soon, Howell should be able to return to the minors where he can continue working on his stuff.