The best start of Hunter Greene’s career
The Reds ace had his arsenal on full display during Monday’s win over San Francisco.
It was a rainy June 6th not too long ago when Brandon Drury powered the Cincinnati Reds offense in a win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Drury went 2 for 4 with a homer off Madison Bumgarner, while Joey Votto chipped in for Cincinnati with a very Votto-like outing of his own: 1 for 1, 2 BB, 2 R.
Kyle Farmer played shortstop, because that’s just what Kyle Farmer and the Reds did back then. Aristides Aquino played right field, because that’s just what the Reds did back then, too.
What the Reds had just begun to do back in those days, too, was unleash Hunter Greene on the world. And on that night in 2022, Greene dazzled in a way we’d been dreaming about since he was selected with the 2nd overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft.
In fact, the only thing that could stop Greene that night was the rain. Weather shortened the game to just 7 full innings, each of which Green completed in a brilliant, efficient 87 pitch masterpiece. His final line - 7.0 IP, H, 0 BB, 8 K - earned him an 87 game score (version 2.0) from FanGraphs, which as of yesterday morning stood as the single best marks of his career.
He now has an 88 game score on his ledger.
Greene’s dominance against the San Francisco Giants last night earned him just that, his 8.2 IP of 4 H, BB, 7 K almost earning him the first full complete game (and first full complete game shutout) of his blossoming career.
He wasn’t just limping his way as he neared 100 pitches and was eventually pulled by manager Terry Francona. He was chucking 100+ mph heat right until the last, a feat that has only been pulled off by future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander and former NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara that late in the game since the advent of Statcast tracking (with a hat-tip to Doug Gray of Redleg Nation.)
Hunter Greene isn’t just ‘ace of the Reds’ anymore. He’s vaulted himself into league-wide Ace status, and the Reds are lucky as hell to have him.
Maybe they should start giving him a few PA here and there too, though.