'He's a beast': Greene strengthens Cy Young case

CINCINNATI -- Not only is Hunter Greene doing his part lately to keep the Reds' fleeting postseason chances alive, the starting pitcher is making a serious bid for Cy Young Award votes.

Greene gave Cincinnati seven strong innings during a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals on Tuesday at Great American Ball Park. He allowed one run on four hits and one walk with eight strikeouts as the Reds claimed the first two games of their three-game series against St. Louis.

“He’s a beast," said first baseman Jeimer Candelario, who hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning to give the Reds a 4-0 lead. "Every five days taking the ball going to the mound, you expect to have a ‘W’ with him. He’s dominating.”

Over his past seven starts, Greene is 4-0 with a 0.98 ERA while working at least six innings in each of them and seven innings four times. Overall in 24 starts this season, he is 9-4 with a 2.83 ERA.

Among qualified National League starters, Greene is ranked third in ERA behind Chris Sale (2.61) and Zack Wheeler (2.78) and is first with a .185 opponents’ batting average. He's ranked fifth with a 1.02 WHIP and is tied for fourth with 162 strikeouts.

Greene is certainly looking like a Cy Young Award contender.

“Especially what he’s been doing here lately," catcher Tyler Stephenson said. "I know some other guys are doing really well, but he’s definitely got to be in that consideration.”

Meanwhile, the Reds (59-61) have won 12 of their past 20 games and remain in the NL Wild Card hunt -- 4 1/2 games back from the final spot.

“My goal is to always win and go out there and be as effective as possible for the team," Greene said. "No matter if we’re in it or not, I’m going to compete. But it’s an exciting time for the guys. Every game counts that much more.”

The game took only one hour and 59 minutes to play -- the second-shortest nine-inning game in GABP history behind a 1:56 game against the Rockies on May 20, 2004.

Credit for a brisk game partially goes to Greene, who worked efficiently while throwing 73 of his 106 pitches for strikes.

Greene allowed a two-out double to Willson Contreras in the first inning before he retired 12 in a row and 13 of 14 batters ahead of his next hit -- a leadoff double by Victor Scott II in the sixth inning.

It wasn't a performance without having to battle, however. With two outs in the top of the fifth inning, Greene walked Lars Nootbaar in a nine-pitch plate appearance and then threw up into his glove. It was at least the third time this season that the right-hander vomited on the mound.

“I saw he had thrown up again and went out there," Stephenson said. "We were just kind of joking about it and stuff. I think it took him a couple of pitches to kind of get back to feeling good again. He settled back in, which is great. He cruised.”

On back-to-back offerings to next batter Nolan Gorman, Greene threw wild pitches that moved Nootbaar to third base. But he rallied from a 3-0 count and hurled a rising 99.7 mph fastball for strike three.

“It’s dealing with adversity and being able to overcome it and make pitches. That’s what it’s about," Greene said. “That’s the only way to get out of that inning, to be able to do that.”

St. Louis broke up the scoreless bid when Nolan Arenado led off the seventh inning with a first-pitch homer to left field. But Greene once again worked deep, which often eluded him his first two seasons.

In 2023, Greene pitched six or more innings only eight times in 22 starts. In '22, he did it nine times over 24 games. Both seasons included stints on the injured list.

This season, he's already thrown six or more innings 17 times and has avoided the IL.

"Just my process throughout the week, I’ve been able to recover a lot better this year," Greene said. "That had a lot to do with my work in the offseason and being able to stay consistent and not get complacent during the season. It’s easy. It’s a long season. You get tired. You do the same routine, the same exercises, the same work day in and day out. It’s easy to slip on those and think -- even if you’re doing well -- ‘Hey, I’ll be fine. I did well last week.’ If you get into that habit, it just snowballs.

"In the past, there were times I would do that. That’s being young and not understanding the length of the season. It’s being able to learn from those experiences.”