Greinke falls short in battle of likely HOFers

KANSAS CITY -- Two trends emerged over the course of Sunday’s series finale between the Royals and Angels at Kauffman Stadium.

Zack Greinke continued to struggle the third time through the order, and the Royals continued their lack of run support for their veteran starter in their 5-2 loss to the Angels. Kansas City fell to 3-19-1 in series this season and remains winless in each of its past nine series.

On Sunday, the Royals’ likely Hall of Fame starter got beat by the Angels’ superstars and possible Hall of Famers, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. The pair crushed back-to-back homers off Greinke in the fifth inning to erase a 2-1 deficit and build a lead the Angels wouldn’t relinquish.

“They’ve certainly done that to a lot of pitchers over the years,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Two of the best hitters in the game. … That third time through with those guys, they made adjustments. He was trying to make adjustments.”

Entering Sunday, Greinke has allowed a .317/.317/.683 slash line across 41 plate appearances when facing an opposing lineup the third time. He went out for the fifth on Sunday at 66 pitches but faced the same fate.

“The third time through the order got me,” Greinke said. “Been struggling with that. I looked back on it, [and] for a couple years now, just have to figure out how to go deeper and get guys out that last time through.”

Taylor Ward laced a leadoff double in the fifth before Ohtani worked a full count against Greinke, who offered the two-way star a steady dose of changeups.

When those didn’t land in the zone, Greinke threw Ohtani a 3-2 curveball -- a pitch Ohtani had whiffed on in the third inning -- and Ohtani crushed it 117.1 mph off the bat and a Statcast-projected 422 feet to the Pepsi Porch for his Major League-leading 24th homer of the year. It was the only curveball the Angels hit in play against Greinke; he registered three whiffs on seven swings with the pitch Sunday.

“It was a bad pitch to Ohtani, and he’s hot,” Greinke said. “This year, that’s kind of what has happened, they start to hit [the curveball] if I use it too much. That seems to be what happened today, used it too many times. Felt if I threw a good changeup, I’d have a decent result in that at-bat. And I tried, like, five of them and really didn’t throw them where I wanted to.”

Moments later, Trout crushed a first-pitch fastball out to left-center field. The down-and-in pitch is where Greinke wanted to go, but Trout was on it.

“I wanted to start him there and then work from there,” Greinke said. “... Trout was struggling until today, so it should have been a good time to face him, if there is a good time.”

The Royals had Carlos Hernández warming up in the fifth, but they let Greinke finish the frame and end his outing after five innings with four runs, eight hits, one walk and four strikeouts.

“We understand [the third time through] is a factor,” Quatraro said. “Zack’s the kind of guy we have a lot of confidence in to be able to do something different, give a different look, that kind of stuff.”

The Royals have scored two runs or fewer with Greinke on the mound in 11 of his 15 starts and have supported him with a total of six runs over his past six starts (30 innings). On Sunday, Maikel Garcia went 3-for-4 and scored both of the Royals’ runs.

Garcia stole second base after a leadoff single in the fourth inning to set up Samad Taylor’s RBI single, making Taylor the sixth player in Royals history to have each of his first two career hits be an RBI knock. He’s one of only seven Royals to record an RBI in each of his first two career games; only one Royal has ever recorded an RBI in three straight games to start his career: Ruppert Jones in August 1976.

But the Royals didn’t have many opportunities, going 2-for-4 with runners in scoring position and leaving five on base. And after going up 1-0 in the second inning, they saw their lead diminish an inning later, taking their Majors-leading 25th blown loss of 2023. The Royals have held a lead in 29 of their 42 games since the beginning of May and are just 12-30 in that time.

“They’re putting the work in,” Quatraro said. “They’re competing throughout the game. … It’s just a matter of doing it all on the same night or afternoon so we’re putting winning baseball together.”