Greinke tagged for three homers as Kansas City Royals drop series finale in Minnesota
The Kansas City Royals couldn’t convert on a chance to secure a series win against the AL Central Division-leading Minnesota Twins in enemy territory. But the more pressing issue coming out of the weekend may be the health of veteran pitcher Zack Greinke.
The Royals’ offense, which had been on an upswing of late, fell flat for most of the day against Twins starter Sonny Gray before turning it on late in a 7-3 loss in the finale of a four-game set before an announced 27,195 at Target Field on Sunday.
Greinke (0-4) gave up five runs on six hits, including three home runs, in four innings. He walked two and struck out two. Following the game, Royals manager Mike Matheny said that Greinke had been dealing with a forearm/elbow issue.
“I think it was one of those days he just didn’t have that feel, not quite as sharp as he wanted to be,” Matheny said. “Then when he came out, we did know he had some issue in his forearm. That’s probably something that may have been with him from the beginning that we weren’t aware of. Unfortunately, the elbow area, flexor area, wasn’t feeling great, so got him out of the game.”
Neither Matheny nor Greinke gave any indication of the severity of the issue. Both said that they’d need more time with the training and medical staff to know how this might affect him in the immediate future. It’s not clear whether he will have to miss any starts, or if an injured-list stint will be warranted.
Greinke had allowed just two home runs in his previous eight starts. But in two starts on the current road trip against decidedly feast-or-famine-type of lineups that swing for the fences in Arizona and Minnesota, he has given up five home runs.
“Arizona and this club, that’s what they do,” Matheny said. “Arizona got into a couple pitches. I know he’s very precise and has got a very high expectation of his execution. When one gets too much of the plate and gets hit, he takes ownership of it.
“But you’re going to get times when you’re running through those lineups and you’re going to get away with a few mistakes. Right now the mistakes that he’s making, they seem to jump on.”
Greinke described the forearm/elbow issue he’s been dealing with as “sore and tight” and that his “stuff” doesn’t feel sharp lately. He said he felt fine entering the season, despite the abnormal spring training due to the lockout, but it “just has gotten worse lately.”
“The last couple games, I gave up home runs on pitches that guys never hit,” Greinke said. “So that tells you that stuff just isn’t sharp, and I could just tell it’s not very sharp. So hopefully, it gets better and I can have better pitches when I come back.”
Asked if he thought the flexor issue was the main reason for some of his location issues and the lack of sharpness, Greinke replied, “I hope so. I hope it gets better and can start getting outs and helping us win games. It would be a lot more fun than what’s been happening.”
Greinke, who made his 10th start of the season, was coming off of his worst start of the year last week in Arizona.
He gave up a season-high seven earned runs in 3 2/3 innings in a loss to the Diamondbacks on the first day of the road trip. He issued a season-high five walks in that outing. He also gave up two home runs.
On Sunday, Greinke ran into trouble in the third inning via the home run. He’d looked poised to work around a leadoff infield single and a one-out single. He got the second out of the inning on a fly ball by Twins cleanup hitter Jorge Polanco.
But then Gio Urshela jumped on a first-pitch sinker on the inside corner and deposited it into the left field stands with two outs and two runners on base for a three-run homer.
“A just know a lot of stuff is not real good,” Greinke said. “My changeup is not really moving, it doesn’t seem like. I’m not commanding the fastball. Curveball is not biting like it was earlier in the year. So pitches aren’t very crisp.
“Even that pitch (to Urshela) is a semi-okay location. Down and in is not usually the best spot, but it wasn’t terrible. That one felt better than the other home run pitches.”
The Twins quickly added to their lead in the fourth inning with back-to-back homers by Nick Gordon and Trevor Larnach, the first time the Twins went back-to-back this season. In the span of four batters, Greinke gave up three home runs and the Royals faced a five-run deficit after four innings.
The Royals trailed 5-0 when Greinke exited the game, the third time in his past four starts that he hasn’t pitched at least five innings.
Gray kept Royals off balance
The Royals were forced to play from behind all day on Sunday and settled for a series split. The Twins now lead the season series with the Royals six wins to four.
MJ Melendez went 2 for 4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored, while Hunter Dozier also went 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI for the Royals (16-30).
Royals left fielder Andrew Benintendi went 2 for 4 with an RBI and scored a run. He also extended his career-high on-base streak to 20 games.
All three of the Royals’ runs came in the seventh inning or later.
Offensively, the Royals were held to just a lone infield single by Melendez, who made his first major-league start in the outfield, until the seventh inning.
Gray (3-1) left the game in the seventh inning in the middle of Bobby Witt Jr.’s at-bat with soreness in his right pectoral muscle.
“He was definitely locating really well, threw all his pitches for strikes and really whenever he wanted to,” Melendez said of Gray. “He started off the game and threw a lot of fastballs, but then second inning came around and he started throwing a lot more off-speed and kind of keeping us off-balance.”
The Royals’ first runs came in the seventh inning courtesy of a Melendez two-out RBI double to right-center field. That scored Benintendi, who singled to leadoff the inning, and Melendez advanced to third on the throw to the plate from the outfield. Dozier then hit an RBI single to give the Royals their second run.
They added a run in the eighth when Nicky Lopez hit a leadoff single, advanced on a balk and scored on Benintendi’s RBI single.
The Royals now continue their three-city road trip in their third stop, Cleveland, on Monday night. They’ll begin a three-game series with the Guardians at 5:10 p.m. Rookie right-hander Jonathan Heasley (0-2, 473) will start for the Royals, while right-hander Zach Plesac (1-4, 5.40) is the scheduled starter for the Guardians.
This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Greinke tagged for three homers as Kansas City Royals drop series finale in Minnesota."
