Zack Greinke will have to battle more than the Toronto Blue Jays when he looks to extend his streak of innings without an earned run Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium.</p><p>There now will be the added weight &#8212; and alleged jinx &#8212; of appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated.</p><p>That&#8217;s right, the magazine selected Greinke to appear on this week&#8217;s cover. Subscribers should begin receiving the issue by midweek. Newsstand copies will be available closer to the weekend.</p><p>Greinke is the first Royals player to appear on the cover since pitcher David Cone on April 5, 1993, for the magazine&#8217;s preview to the baseball season. The last Royals player to appear on an in-season cover was outfielder Bo Jackson on June 12, 1989.</p><p>Impressed? Greinke isn&#8217;t.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot more interesting stuff going on right now,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They should have something else on the cover. Playoff basketball or something else.</p><p>&#8220;So it&#8217;s a mistake. They&#8217;ll probably sell their least amount of magazines in a long time &#8212; except when NASCAR was on the cover.&#8221;</p><p>The cover picture is an action shot in part because Greinke declined the magazine&#8217;s request to sit for a portrait. The story, written by Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski, chronicles Greinke&#8217;s emergence as one of the game&#8217;s premier pitchers after a rocky path following his selection as the sixth overall pick in the 2002 draft.</p><p>&#8220;I just want to play and not deal with all of the other stuff,&#8221; Greinke said. &#8220;But I know that you have to deal with it. And there&#8217;s getting to be a lot more now. But, really, I don&#8217;t care about any of that award stuff anymore. It just doesn&#8217;t matter.&#8221;</p><p>Greinke&#8217;s reluctance is not directed at Sports Illustrated. He now generally only talks to the media on days when he pitches. It has nothing to do with any possible SI jinx?</p><p>&#8220;They have a jinx?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Really, all that matters is winning games. Winning is what always mattered (most), but I would still like the other stuff. But now, I don&#8217;t care one bit about it &#8212; any of it, any award stuff, All-Star or anything.</p><p>&#8220;All this is about is winning games. That&#8217;s all it&#8217;s about.&#8221;</p><p>Greinke is 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 29 innings over his four starts. His streak of scoreless innings, dating to last season, ended at 38 last Friday when the Tigers scored an unearned run.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">High quality</span></strong></p><p>Greinke&#8217;s efforts lead a staff that leads the American League with a 3.34 ERA and has 12 &#8220;quality starts.&#8221;</p><p>The Mariners began Monday ranked second in ERA among AL teams at 3.50.</p><p>Greinke and Gil Meche each have &#8220;three quality starts,&#8221; which are defined as pitching six or more innings while allowing three or fewer earned runs. Kyle Davies and Sidney Ponson each have two &#8220;quality starts.&#8221;</p><p>Brian Bannister has &#8220;quality starts&#8221; in both of his games since returning from Class AAA Omaha.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Extra-base effort</span></strong></p><p>Willie Bloomquist&#8217;s triple in the fourth inning was his first since Aug. 25, 2006, while playing for Seattle. It was also his second extra-base hit of the season &#8212; one more than he had all last year in 192 plate appearances for Seattle.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Minor details</span></strong></p><p>Right-hander Luke Hochevar produced another strong start Monday in limiting Oklahoma City to one unearned run in six innings in Class AAA Omaha&#8217;s 8-1 victory in the first game of a doubleheader.</p><p>Hochevar improved to 4-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.44 in 25 innings over his four starts. He permitted just four hits while striking out seven and walking two.