Zack Greinke's Pursuit of Orel Hershiser's Scoreless Record Is Impressive, Except If You're Bryce Harper

Once upon a time — 1988 to be exact — ESPN’s signature show, SportsCenter, was only a half hour long and ran only a couple times of day throughout the day, more akin to your local news than the CNN-like, nonstop behemoth the show is today. Lo and behold, during these days sometimes the show would lead with actual news, compared to a contrived NFL quarterback ranking.

For whatever the reason, I still distinctly recall ESPN going with full-bore coverage (late 80s style) of Orel Hershiser’s pursuit of Don Drysdale’s scoreless innings streak of 58. Hershiser broke it on the final day of the 1988 regular season — and then was great in the playoffs as the Dodgers won the World Series vs. the Athletics. I’d like to think the ever-cheerful Charley Steiner, decked out in glasses and brownish sport coat, delivered the news.

Looking back now, the amazing part of Hershiser’s run is that after the streak began on Aug. 30 over the final four innings of a complete game at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, he went all nine innings of five of his six September starts. The only time he didn’t finish with a complete game was the final game of the regular season against the Padres, where he went 10 innings in an eventual 15-inning loss by the Dodgers as remembered here by a pre-Springfield Nuclear Power Plant Mike Scoscia. (San Diego starter Andy Hawkins also went 10 that day.)

Times have changed, so it’s unlikely Greinke’s run at Hershiser merits the same national attention, even in the late-July dead zone. That said, his streak began on June 18 with seven scoreless vs. the Rangers. It’s up to 43 2/3 after Sunday’s win vs. the Nationals. His next start later this week happens to at Citi Field. This give Greinke a shot vs. a) a weak offensive team and b) in the media capital of the world.

Attention doesn’t matter much, by any metric Greinke’s been unreal over the last month allowing only 15 hits over his scoreless span. He probably got the whole giving up runs thing out of his system in the All Star Game last week after allowing a leadoff homer to Mike Trout. Greinke, who can opt out of the remaining three years/$71 million of his contract after the season, has won his last four decisions and the Dodgers are 5-1 since his streak began.

Opposing batters simply can’t get anything going off Greinke’s fastball.

This is all quite impressive to everyone in baseball, except the frontrunner for National League MVP — Bryce Harper, who groused to CSN Washington after Sunday’s game:

The Dodgers and Nationals could face each other in October, so I’d guess these quotes will be bookmarked and dusted off soon enough.

Greinke’s scoreless streak has achieved something else: it’s overshadowed Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium. Kershaw, who struck out out 14 batters on Saturday in Washington, initially didn’t make the All Star team. He’s only got 174 strikeouts in 131 innings to go along with a 2.68 ERA to his name in 2015. Kershaw is at the point where he’s supposedly having an off season, but it would register as a career year for just about anyone else.

The July put together by Greinke and Kershaw might actually, lightning bolt strike me down, put them in the halcyon Drysdale & Koufax category.

When I started off this post I was thinking of another old baseball axiom, “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain” as in the difference between Kershaw/Greinke and the rest of the Dodgers starters, since the team is continually linked to a pitcher to bolster the rotation before July 31. As it stands the Los Angeles starting pitcher ERA is 3.09, which only trails St. Louis in Oakland. Kershaw and Greinke, overall, have a 1.98 ERA this year. When you remove them from the equation, the Dodgers’ starters’ ERA jumps to 4.04, which would be tied for 16th.

As good as the duo’s pitched in July, I’d wager a steak dinner all Dodger fans would take a fraction of this performance and save it for the postseason. Kershaw is only 1-5 in 11 postseason starts over 51+ innings, with his ERA standing at 5.12 — more than double his lifetime 2.50 regular season mark. The numbers aren’t as different for Greinke, who’s only made seven postseason starts but his ERA is 3.63 which parallels his regular season mark of 3.67.

As aforementioned, the Greinke stuff is going to gain a lot more traction as the week progresses since the Dodgers are in New York for his next start. Hershiser did allow a couple runs in the 1988 playoffs, but pitched a shutout in Game 7 of the NLCS against the Mets, which adds another wrinkle.

I’d guess most around baseball will be intrigued to see what Greinke does … unless they’re Giants fans or named Bryce Harper.

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[Photo via USA Today Sports Images]