The Streak Is Over

Zack Greinke's scoreless inning streak came to an end at 45 2/3 innings. Unfortunately the New York Mets official scorer had made a ruling, charging Greinke with an earned run because an error wasmade earlier in the inning by Joc Pederson. He made assumptions and my school of thought is the same as is for double plays. You cannot assume a double play just because one should have been made. All streaks come to an end. That is inevitable. Greinke virtually had no reaction to the end of the streak. In regards to the scoreless innings streak, Greinke said, "if anything, I feel negative about it. Now I don't have to answer questions all the time." The Dodgers did lose the game 3-2 in 10 innings.

I remember when Pete Rose's heating streak had reached 44 games and it came to an end on August 1, 1978 against the Atlanta Braves. Rookie left hander Larry McWilliams of the Braves made his fourth major league start that night and he walked Rose his first time up, speared a line drive that was destined to be a hit, grounded out to Jerry Royster his third time up, and McWilliams was pulled from the game after five innings. Rose faced reliever Gene Garber next and Rose lined out to rookie third baseman Bob Horner who doubled Dave Collins off first. The Braves had a 16-4 lead when Rose came up for his final at bat with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. Gene Garber was still pitching and he struck Rose out on a changeup that was low and outside on a 2-2 count. Rose was mad at the Braves pitchers for not "challenging him with fastballs" (Baseball Almanac and he is quoted as saying after the game "I was a little surprised that in a game that was 16-4, he [Garber] pitched me like it was the seventh game of the World Series." (Savannahnow.com. What Rose did not say was how he tried to bunt his way on with the first pitch of the top of the ninth which would have been a very cheap way of extending the streak. He was trying to get on base using any means necessary so why shouldn't Garber try to get him out using all of the pitches in his repertoire.

Greinke's scoreless innings streak was a great streak and is the third longest in Dodgers history. Up next on the watch list is Clayton Kershaw's scoreless inning streak and it is up to 29 innings.