Zack Greinke is having a disappointing year after winning the Cy Young Award, and he can no longer blame poor run support. Jeanmar Gomez has fallen apart lately, so go ‘over’.
The Kansas City Royals continue their series with the Cleveland Indians tonight, as Zack Greinke takes on Jeanmar Gomez.
The total on this game is 7½ with betting odds of -105 each way.
This season was certainly not the type of follow-up to his Cy Young campaign that Royals ace Greinke had hoped for. The veteran right-hander will finish this season with a losing record and an ERA around four runs which is a far cry from what he has accomplished the last two seasons for KC.
Greinke is in his prime (26 years old) so it's hard to pin-point exactly what went wrong this year. It would lessen the blow if Greinke had turned things around in the second half, but that didn't happen either, as Greinke's 4-5 record and 4.38 ERA since the All-Star break are significantly worse than his performance prior to that.
Poor run support can explain his losing record, but not his high ERA as he's allowed far too many base-runners this season (257 in 209 innings vs. just 246 in 229 in all of 2009) and actually Greinke's run support has improved significantly lately with the Royals scoring 24 runs in his four September starts so far.
You would think Greinke would have had a lot of success against this Cleveland team in the past, but he's only 8-8 with a 3.42 ERA against the Tribe.
Young right-hander Gomez of the Indians started out showing a lot of promise when he moved into the rotation right after the break, but he's really fallen apart lately with 15 runs surrendered in his last two starts, including seven (six earned) in his last start at home against the Angels.
Heading into today, the ‘over’ is 10-4 in the last 14 meetings. Take the 'over.'
Free Pick: Royals, Indians Over 7½ (-105)