Red-hot Greinke brings win streak to Washington Zimmermann hopes to put Nationals back in win column at home by Ken Gurnick | MLB.com Zack Greinke leads all of baseball at 5-0, and his 2.04 ERA is 6th best in the National League. Zack Greinke is on a roll, enough that Dodgers management decided to hold off a day on Clayton Kershaw's return from the disabled list to keep Greinke on a preferred five-day cycle. So Greinke starts Monday night's series opener for the Dodgers against the Nationals and Jordan Zimmermann. Greinke is 3-0 with a 1.78 ERA in four lifetime starts against Washington and threw six scoreless innings last July 20 in his only start at Nationals Park. He's seeking a 6-0 start to a season for the second time in his career, the other time came in 2009, when he went on to win the Cy Young Award for Kansas City. Dating back to July 30 of last year, Greinke has made 18 consecutive regular season starts of five or more innings allowing two or fewer runs. It's the longest such streak in the Major Leagues since 1914. During the run, he's 12-1 with a 1.72 ERA. As for Zimmermann, he is looking to win his second straight decision. In his last start this past Wednesday, he held the Astros scoreless for 6 1/3 innings in a 7-0 victory. Zimmermann is clearly the best pitcher on Washington's staff. He is one guy who doesn't care about compiling a lot of strikeouts. When he first came into the league in 2009, Zimmermann thought too much about strikeouts, which affected his pitch count. But after having Tommy John surgery that year, he developed a new pitching philosophy: A groundout is just as valuable as a strikeout. "When I came up, I tried to strike everyone out. I was out of the zone and throwing 80 pitches in four innings," Zimmermann said. "I would scratch my head and wonder, 'Would I be able to make it to the sixth?' After I had Tommy John surgery, I thought to myself, 'The best in the game hit .300, so they are going to get themselves out seven out of 10 times.' That's the way I thought about it. The chances of me getting this guy out are pretty good." __
Greinke's streak of 18 games with 2 runs or less in 5 or more innings is now over. Thank you mother nature.
