CINCINNATI -- Hunter Greene’s first season has gone as expected, with the usual ups and downs of a rookie campaign, in the words of Reds manager David Bell.
Greene’s six-inning outing in Saturday’s 5-4, 10-inning walk-off win over the Rays at Great American Ball Park was yet another roller-coaster affair. Greene cruised through the first four innings with eight strikeouts and only one hit allowed. He labored in the fifth with a pair of walks and an RBI single by Francisco Mejía to drive home the first run.
With his pitches piling up in the sixth, Greene fanned Randy Arozarena with a 90.9 mph slider on his 114th delivery and career-high 22nd whiff of the day. He finished with three hits allowed and an earned run with four walks and nine strikeouts.
The fastball played all afternoon.
Greene’s 67 fastballs on Saturday averaged 100.1 mph. His 38 100-plus mph pitches fell one shy of his single-game MLB high in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) set on April 16. His six strikeouts on 100-plus mph pitches on Saturday were the most by anyone in the pitch-tracking era.
“Going through my last two starts has been tough, it’s been a challenge,” Greene said. “It was a great matchup for me. Being able to execute those fastballs was big for me today. There’s still a lot of work to be done. I don’t want to rely on my velocity to get through.”
Getting through the batting order the second and third time and making those necessary adjustments is another important step in Greene’s progression. And that was difficult on Saturday as well.
“I notice that with the best [pitchers] in the game, they’re still able to get through and cruise second and third time through,” Greene said. “I’ve had some games where I’ve been able to do that. Then there have been games where that’s been more of a challenge. That’s definitely something I’ll continue to work on.”
Even with a 3-10 record at the halfway point of his season, Greene has exceeded Bell’s expectations to this point.
“His first season is not even close to being over,” Bell said. “It will be fun to watch how he handles things the rest of the way. He’s never been this deep into a season, so that will create some other challenges. He’s a perfectionist. We’ll need to make sure that doesn’t work against him.”
It helped that Greene had batterymate Tyler Stephenson back behind the plate on Saturday.
Stephenson, who had missed 27 games due to a broken thumb, didn’t arrive at the ballpark until about an hour and a half before first pitch. He was about halfway to Cincinnati when he realized he had left his equipment back in Louisville, where he’d been rehabbing. Stephenson turned around, got his stuff and battled bad traffic to get to Cincinnati on time.
“I had to call David [Bell], and thought maybe I should just stay in Louisville for a couple more weeks,” joked Stephenson, who went 2-for-5, scored a run, and picked off a runner at third in Saturday’s win. “It took me until about the fourth inning to breathe. It definitely was a rushed morning.”
Greene left with a 1-0 deficit that grew to a 3-0 deficit in the top of the eighth inning, but the Reds managed to come back in the bottom half thanks to a bases-loaded walk by Nick Senzel and two-run single by likely All-Star Brandon Drury, who went 4-for-5. Drury will find out Sunday if he’s named as an All-Star reserve.
That 3-3 tie held through the ninth inning, and the Rays and Reds went to extras for the second straight night. The Rays took the lead in the top half, then pinch-runner Kyle Farmer scored the tying run from third on a wild pitch by Calvin Faucher, and hot-hitting Senzel delivered the walk-off single to finish off the win.
“Get a hit, and go home,” said Senzel of his approach in that at-bat.
For last-place Cincinnati, the fourth walk-off win this homestand is a boost of confidence.
"You take wins however you can get them, but when you get it like that, where it takes 9, 10 innings against a good team, it shows a lot of toughness,” Bell said. “Every game matters. It carries over. It helps the clubhouse. We’re not where we want to be, by any means. But you have to keep playing."