Hunter Greene entered his start on Saturday with an ERA of 13.97. He had skipped his previous start as the Cincinnati Reds will probably have him do a few more times this season in order to help keep his workload for the year under control. Things barely could have gone better for Greene as he returned to the mound.
The first inning, which has been a struggle for Hunter Greene this season, was an easy one. So was the second inning. Both innings were perfect and included a strikeout. It was the third inning that would test the 18-year-old pitcher on Saturday. But, it wasn’t exactly for any of his own doing. The first batter reached on a single, but that single was an infield pop up that fell between two fielders and landed on the dirt in the midst of confusion. Another single in the inning on a blooper to center field put runners on the corners with one out. He got out of the inning by picking off the runner at first and then getting a strikeout to end the inning.
In what would be his final inning of work, the 4th, Hunter Greene would toss another perfect frame. He would get the first batter to ground out and follow up with two strikeouts to close the book on his day. That left him with final line of 4.0 innings, two hits allowed, no runs, no walks, and he struck out five batters.
You can watch the final pitch of all five strikeouts by Hunter Greene in the video above. But, let’s dive into the outing a little bit. In the first three innings of the game, Greene threw one offspeed pitch. Everything else was a fastball between 97-100 MPH, touching 101 once during the game. In the 4th inning, though, that’s when he began to mix in more offspeed stuff.
The plan entering the game was to be fastball heavy during the outing. It paid off, too. Saturday night saw Hunter Greene throw the highest rate of strikes he had in his six starts this season. He threw 39 strikes out of 57 pitches, good for a 68.4% strike rate. His first start of the year was the next best at 66%, and the only other start above 60%.
Improving the control was a good step for Hunter Greene, who had walked nine batters in his previous three starts, spanning just 4.1 innings. In his other three starts he’s walked one batter and struck out 16. Consistency has been where he’s needed to improve, and on Saturday night, he was rather consistent.