Houston Astros: Zack Greinke with Cy Young numbers in one category

With a fifth inning strikeout of Eric Hosmer, Max Scherzer became the 19th member of the 3000 strikeout club. Next in line may be Houston Astros pitcher, Zack Greinke. While he sits 201 punch outs away, the next milestone on Greinke’s list will be passing Cy Young on the all-time strikeout list. Based on his numbers this year, he should have already done this. However, strikeouts have been eluding Greinke in recent starts.

Currently sitting at 2799 strikeouts over the course of his 18 year career, Greinke needs four more k’s to match the total Young amassed during his 22 year career. Greinke has struck out four or more batters in 19 of his 27 starts this season.

Problem is, of the 8 starts Greinke failed to at least strike out four hitters, four of them have come in his last five trips to the mound. This includes the contest against the Kansas City Royals when he went six innings without recording one strikeout.

Of the last 48 hitters Grinke has recorded outs against, only three have been of the u-turn variety.

Houston Astros pitcher Zack Greinke may be next to hit the 3000 strikeout plateau, passing Cy Young is first up though.

This will be Greinke’s fifth start of the year against the Texas Rangers, and in three of the four previous he has struck out at least four batters. His most recent outing, he gave up nine hits and six earned runs in just four innings, while punching out just one batter. Two days after that start Greinke was placed on the COVID-19 Injured List.

There has been some chatter recently about whether Greinke is a Hall of Fame pitcher. The six time All-Star has a Cy Young Award to his name, and has won the ERA crown twice in his career. With 219 career wins and just shy of 3000 strikeouts, one would think his time in the bigs has been good, great even at some points, but not HOF worthy.

Just like 3000 hits for batters can be a ticket to Cooperstown, 3000 strikeouts for pitchers can be as well. Of the pitchers in the club who are not in the HOF, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, and CC Sabathia, two have baggage and one is not yet eligible.

As Greinke continues to work on his resume, he’s moving himself into good company on the all-time strikeout list.