Greinke's veteran magic stumps Sox in finale

KANSAS CITY -- After every Royals win, their clubhouse awards a “player of the game,” an honor that has taken on different variations as the season has progressed.

As it stands currently, the recipient -- awarded typically by the veterans on the roster, like Hunter Dozier, Salvador Perez and Nicky Lopez -- will say a few words postgame, keeping the vibe light and enjoyable.

Thursday’s player of the game: starter Zack Greinke, who twirled 6 1/3 scoreless innings in the Royals’ 5-3 win over the White Sox at Kauffman Stadium.

His award speech?

“Good job.”

“And then he just walked away,” Lopez said. “It was perfect.”

The 38-year-old man of few -- but blunt -- words has endeared himself to a clubhouse full of young and eager players because of the way he carries himself on and off the field, as well as his performances on the mound.

Thursday was no different as the veteran starter maneuvered his way through traffic on the bases, allowing nine hits and still holding the opponent scoreless for the first time in any of his 507 career starts.

The most troubling situation Greinke faced came in the top of the third inning, when the White Sox hit three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs and the heart of the order coming up.

Greinke threw a first-pitch ball to Eloy Jiménez but got him to swing through the next three, a cutter and two curveballs.

José Abreu got a first-pitch ball, too, but then came up empty on three consecutive strikes: Swinging on a fastball, looking at a curveball and swinging on a changeup.

Then Greinke found himself in a precarious 3-0 count against Yasmani Grandal before getting two called strikes with his fastball. Grandal fouled off another and then put the next one in play for a groundout.

“Sometimes I might get too much offspeed heavy,” Greinke said. “Today I did a decent job of throwing some fastballs in that situation to be a little less predictable.”

Greinke seemed unfazed by the wizardry he seemed to conjure. His teammates and coaches were not.

“I don’t think you’re going to see a pitcher put on a display of making tough pitches in a bigger spot than what he did right there,” manager Mike Matheny said. “With who was coming up, where they were in their lineup, he just found a different level.”

“It’s unbelievable, man,” Lopez added. “Every single day, you see pitchers throw 98-100. That’s the norm now. To see a guy play 18 years in the big leagues, still doing it -- with 90 mph and mixing and matching, keeping them off-kilter, it’s pretty special.”

Greinke pitched himself out of trouble several times and issued no walks with five strikeouts, pitching into the seventh inning for the first time this year.

And it’s exactly what the Royals needed as they faced Dylan Cease, whose only mistake was a hanging slider that Vinnie Pasquantino hammered over the right-field wall for his third home run of the series.

In the first eight games of this season-long 11-game homestand, Kansas City's starters have a 2.85 ERA with 40 strikeouts and 10 walks in 47 1/3 innings. And much fun as it is to watch the young offense thrive in the big leagues -- which came up clutch again Thursday with four late insurance runs, including a two-run knock from Lopez in the seventh -- their confidence is soaring.

That’s because the Royals are able to stay in games due to better pitching.

“These guys have now put themselves in a place where they’re starting to see some more of that consistency that you would hope to see,” Matheny said. “You’re mixing in a guy like Zack to help lead that along, the starting pitching has really been, to me, the key that allows us to stay in games like that one today, to allow some of the excitement to happen on the bases.”

Thursday’s victory marked the Royals’ first back-to-back four-game series wins in eight years (Aug. 11-18, 2014, when they took three of four vs. OAK and MIN). And the success couldn’t come at a better time, as they prepare to host the first-place Dodgers for three games this weekend at The K.

Along with the positive vibes flowing from the Royals’ clubhouse these days, there’s conviction, too. These young guys are unafraid and unalarmed. Perhaps they have nothing to lose by being 47-66 during the dog days of August.

Perhaps they know no other way.

“It’s not going to be something that intimidates us because the Dodgers are coming to town,” Pasquantino said. “We’re ready to play them. I’m not guaranteeing a win or anything like that, but I am guaranteeing tough games, and we’re going to compete our tails off for three games and see what happens."