What Royals pitcher Zack Greinke says about his return to The K as Opening Day starter
Kansas City Royals right-hander Zack Greinke is ready for his trip down memory lane, even if his memory of the last Opening Day start he made for the club at Kauffman Stadium isn’t exactly pristine.
Royals manager Mike Matheny announced on Wednesday that Greinke will start for the club on Opening Day — Thursday, April 7, against the Cleveland Guardians in Kansas City. The start comes 12 years after he last started a season opener for the Royals in the same ballpark.
Greinke’s return to the Royals this spring as a free agent certainly sparked memories of his early days in Kansas City, the franchise with which he started his career.
Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore said of Greinke the day he signed, “He has a very special place in Royals history.”
Greinke, 38, had previously said increased support for the team in KC, and the rise in the fan base that he witnessed during KC’s World Series runs in 2014 and 2015, convinced him that things were better now than they were in his previous stint with the club.
He’ll get to reintroduce himself to that fan base on April 7.
“I’m excited to be back,” Greinke said. “The main goal for me is focusing on pitching and helping the team. That’s the main concentration at the moment.”
The Royals drafted Greinke out of high school in Apopka, Florida, with the sixth pick in the 2002 MLB Draft. He made his major-league debut in 2004 and remained a Royal through the 2010 season.
In seven major-league seasons with the Royals, Greinke went 60-67 with a 3.82 ERA, 931 strikeouts, 280 walks and a 1.26 WHIP in 1,108 innings (210 games, 169 starts).
He won the AL Cy Young Award in 2009, and he started the season opener the following year, his last season with the Royals.
Asked what he remembered from his Opening Day start in 2010, Greinke said, “Not really too much. I don’t remember if I did good or not that game or who it was against.”
The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner at the time, Greinke started against the Detroit Tigers and ace Justin Verlander. Verlander and Greinke later became teammates with the Houston Astros.
In the 2010 opener, Greinke allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits and one walk in six innings for a no-decision in an 8-4 loss.
“It’s probably a little bit different than a normal start, but not too much,” Greinke said of Opening Day. “Your first start’s always a little bit different, whether it’s the first game, second game, third game, tenth game. Your first outing is different than most of them.”
Greinke acknowledged that this start might feel different because it will be his first time back at Kauffman Stadium as a member of the Royals in a dozen years.
“Yeah, it will probably be a little different,” Greinke said. “Every time I pitch there is a little different than pitching at another place. Same with every time I pitched in Milwaukee, it’s been a little different. Those are the two places that I feel different when I pitch at them.”
Greinke didn’t characterize it as a good “different,” necessarily. He said the difference was the memories attached to the location.
“It’s more just driving in a familiar area, like being by where you lived for a couple of years,” he said. “The drive to the stadium brings back memories, kind of like when I go back home to Orlando. When I go back to my street where I grew up, it just kind of has a different feel to it.”
As far as the typical pomp, circumstance and festivities of Opening Day, Greinke said it’s actually “easier” to deal with all of that as the starting pitcher because one can simply going through a normal routine and focus on getting ready to pitch.
