Breaking down the outings of Greinke and Kershaw in D-backs’ loss

Zack Greinke stepped into the batter’s box in Los Angeles on Friday where he was welcomed with a shower of boos when his name was announced.

Greinke, who spent three seasons with the Dodgers before exercising an out clause in his contract to sign with the Arizona Diamondbacks, found himself digging into the batter’s box to face his former teammate Clayton Kershaw.

Kershaw outlasted Greinke in the two aces’ first-ever meeting as the D-backs lost, 7-1.

The much-anticipated battle looked to be a pitchers’ duel, but it was the three-time Cy Young Award-winner in the white Dodgers uniform who displayed ace-quality pitching. Kershaw started the game by retiring the first 10 hitters he faced.

But when Chris Owings batted in the fourth, he hit a ball back up the middle that missed Kershaw’s head by inches. Perhaps it ratted the lefty, because he walked Paul Goldschmidt and tossed a wild pitch to Yasmany Tomas.

Kershaw was looking visibly frustrated.

Yikes! 99 mph off the bat of Chris Owings narrowly missed Kershaw. pic.twitter.com/mt9qbJ2mAn

— Chris Gabel (@Chris_Gabel) April 15, 2017

But he settled right back in, pitching brilliantly…

…until the ninth.

It was in the final frame that Owings got to Kershaw again. This time, Chris Iannetta was on first after singling, and Owings pounded a ball into the right-center field gap. With Iannetta trying to score, the throw home was deemed not-in-time after a review. The D-backs then trailed 7-1.

The shutout was over.

Kershaw’s final line: 8.1 innings with four hits and a walk with eight strikeouts and one earned run. He threw 72 of his 100 pitches for strikes.

Most of the time, a pitcher won’t show all of his pitches to the opposing lineup in his first time through the order; he’ll save some of it for later. Kershaw did that, mostly, throwing almost entirely fastballs and sliders in his first time through the D-backs lineup – mixing in a curveball here and there.

Greinke, on the other hand, took a different route.

By the time the second Dodgers’ hitter of the night had finished his plate appearance, Greinke had already thrown a four-seam fastball, curveball, slider, two-seam fastball and a changeup.

Greinke’s final line: 5.0 innings, five earned runs, 10 hits, three walks and four strikeouts. He threw 64 of his 107 pitches for strikes.

The D-backs ace also seemed to never find a rhythm, allowing a baserunner in every inning he pitched.

Impressively, though, Greinke did get Kershaw to bounce out at a critical time: In the second inning, with one out, L.A.’s Yasmani Grandal singled. Joc Pederson followed with a double that put runners on second and third, and Yasiel Puig walked.

With the bases loaded, Greinke fired four straight fastballs to get Kershaw to ground into a double play to end the inning.

Kershaw went 0-for-3 at the plate off Greinke on Friday, and only two pitches in those at-bats were something other than a fastball.

But Greinke only batted once for himself. He went 0-for-1.

While the marquee matchup seemed exciting on paper, the outing turned out to be rather one-sided. Greinke’s ERA on the season jumps to 4.32 as he earns his first loss of 2017.

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