ST. LOUIS –– With two outs and a full count against St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan in the fourth inning on Saturday, Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene threw a 100 mph fastball on the inside corner of the plate that was perfectly placed for strike three. Greene clapped his mitt, skipped off the mound and continued along with the shutout he was throwing.
It’s not supposed to look this easy for a 22-year-old rookie pitcher who’s one of the youngest players in MLB.
At Busch Stadium on Saturday, as the Cardinals beat the Reds, 5-4, on a walk-off home run by Tommy Edman off reliever Joel Kuhnel, Greene allowed only one run and two hits. Over the last month, Greene looked like a pitcher who’s capable of being a front-of-the-rotation starter right now for a contending team. Over his last seven starts, Greene has a 3.20 ERA and 50 strikeouts.
"My expectations are always high for myself," Greene said. "I think that’s a good thing. Sometimes there are cons to that, but it makes me who I am as a competitive pitcher. I think as I’m starting to learn the game more and myself as a pitcher, I’m figuring things out. There’s a lot of work that’s put in to continuing to trying to perfect this as much as possible."
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Even in a loss for the Reds, Greene showed how he has taken the next step in his development.
It was only five weeks ago that Greene entered a home start against the Milwaukee Brewers with an 8.71 ERA. Opposing hitters had better results against Greene’s fastball than any other pitch in baseball.
At the time, Greene couldn’t locate his slider as well as he does now, so hitters waited to pounce on his fastball. He wasn’t throwing his changeup either, and Greene’s season was at a fork in the road.
"The importance of making adjustments, I think that’s one of the biggest points of being a professional," Greene said. "At this level, it’s being able to make pitch-to-pitch adjustments, not game-to-game. I’m taking pride in that and it helps me put myself in a better situation to succeed. I’m not taking it for granted. I still have a lot of work to do."
Then he tweaked the way he uses his slider, developing two variations of the pitch. Greene turned the slider into his best pitch. That development unlocked the success of his fastball. He started gaining more confidence in his changeup and mixed in the pitch versus left-handed hitters.
And Greene is looking every bit the part of a No. 2 overall draft pick and a top pitching prospect.
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Consider his accomplishments over the last month. On May 10, Greene pitched 5 ⅓ standout innings versus the Milwaukee Brewers, the best team in the division at the time, just five days after Greene had his worst start of his professional career against the same team.
On May 15, Greene didn’t allow a hit in Pittsburgh. Then he allowed one run in six innings in Toronto. Following starts against the Cubs and Red Sox where Greene had one bad inning in each game, he has been on his best run of the season.
On June 6, Greene allowed one hit and no hard contact versus the Diamondbacks. Then on Saturday versus the division-leading Cardinals, he took another step forward.
"He’s doing a nice job of adapting as the start goes and adjusting to the hitters as they adjust to him," Reds manager David Bell said. "He’s pitching. We’ve seen that, really, most of the season now. It continues to be impressive.”
He opened Saturday’s game with three consecutive strikeouts on three fastballs at the top of the strike zone. The Cardinals couldn’t catch up to the pitch, and Greene consistently threw strikes throughout the game.
Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado doubled to open the second inning, but Greene didn’t allow another hit until the Cardinals got an infield single in the sixth inning. Greene has bounced back and forth between using his fastball and his slider as his go-to pitch. After the first inning against the Cardinals, Greene was back to using his slider.
When he needed it, the fastball was in Greene’s back pocket. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Greene threw a game-high 101.7 mph fastball. He ended the at-bat with another strike three fastball that was 100.7 mph at the top of the strike zone.
Greene looked every bit the part of a star in the making on Saturday, and it wasn’t even one of the best starts he has had over the last 30 days.
"He’s throwing off-speed a little more consistently and getting people off the heater," Reds catcher Chris Okey said. "It’s always fun to catch him."
After pitching five innings, Greene left the game in line for the win. He pitched with the lead following a three-run third inning for the Reds offense. Brandon Drury and Tommy Pham hit back-to-back doubles, and Kyle Farmer drove Pham in on a single to left field against Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright.
Bell pulled Greene after he threw his 101st pitch, and rookie Alexis Díaz escaped a bases loaded jam with an assist from a leaping catch at the wall by Reds center fielder Nick Senzel.
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But the Reds bullpen couldn’t hold onto a three-run lead. Reliever Hunter Strickland allowed an RBI double to Cardinals left fielder Tyler O’Neill in the eighth inning. With the Reds up 4-3, Bell gave Kuhnel a shot at his first big league save.
Following a throwing error on a pickoff attempt by Kuhnel with two outs, he allowed the game-winning homer.
“Absolutely I feel very responsible," Bell said. "It’s a big decision to leave Joel in there. He’s been pitching so well. He came in and did a nice job in the eighth to get out of that inning. Just threw a couple of pitches. Sent him back out but really, he pitched last night and pitched again today. To go back out, he faced a hitter or two too many."
"Tony Santillan, he’s ready in the bullpen," Bell added. "I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Tony. At that point, it would have been the time to have Tony come in and help Joel get out of it. Stayed with Joel. Again he’s been pitching so well. He’s earned it. It’s just putting a lot on him two days in a row.”
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