Zack Greinke Deserved His Defining Moment – A.J. Hinch Blew It

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I’m never forgiving A.J. Finch for pulling Zack Greinke in the sixth inning of Game 7 of the 2019 World Series. Bookmark this and put it in an internet time capsule, open it up sixty years from now, and I’ll still be upset about it – dead or alive. 

Greinke was dealing a gem, having not only shut out the Washington Nationals for six innings, but pitching a near perfect game too. For nearly half of Game 7, the recaps were seemingly writing themselves. The Nationals had overcome adversity all season along, battled back when it seemed all odds were stacked against them, and put up a valiant effort to push the juggernaut Astros all the way to Game 7 – only to run into an unhittable pitcher on the biggest stage. 

Even in an era when starting pitching is losing its value because of analytics, finances and a host of other things, it’s still fairly tough to beat a pitcher that delivers an epic performance. By all measures, Greinke did that in Game 7. He pitched 6 and 1/3 scoreless innings before making one mistake to Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon. Rendon blasted off Greinke to cut the Astros lead to one. (For context, Rendon is one of the top twenty-five players in all of baseball and is the second-best free agent on the market this winter. Translation: There’s no shame in making even the tiniest mistake to Rendon.) Shortly thereafter, Greinke walked Nationals phenom Juan Soto. What can’t go without being noted is any reasonable person will agree Greinke should have had a 2-2 count on a pitch that was clearly in the strike zone. Instead, thanks to just one of several comical and quite frankly disastrous umpire errors in the series, Greinke delivered to Soto down on a 3-1 count. For those that don’t know baseball, the difference in pitching to a batter of Soto’s caliber on a 3-1 instead of a 2-2 is massive. Nevertheless, Astros manager A.J. Hinch panicked, pulled Greinke from an absolutely legendary performance, and the rest is history. The bullpen imploded, the Nationals won their first World Series title in franchise history, and the Astros are left to wonder what could have been. 

I have a special affinity for Greinke, and root for him personally, even though I am not a Astros fan. Greinke lives with Social Anxiety Disorder and depression and has been open about it for years. He, along with a number of individuals both well-known and not so well-known, have been inspirations to people like me in trying to figure out how to navigate this world with similar experiences. It hasn’t always been peaches and roses for Greinke in dealing with the pressures of being an MLB ace while also battling anxiety and depression, as evidenced from many challenges he publicly faced while pitching for the Kansas City Royals. 

It’s true that many would argue Greinke had his defining moment in 2009, when he was named AL Cy Young winner. I can jive with that. Few things rank above the threshold of starting pitching galore than being named the top pitcher from your league in any given year. But Greinke, one of the first American pro sports figures to sign a deal worth more than $30 million dollars annually, deserved an opportunity to cement his legacy in classic folklore.

Having overcome all the challenges he has in both his professional and personal life, I desperately wanted to see Greinke have such a high pressure moment to be defined by. I wanted to forever be able to have group talks or one-on-one chats with other teens and young adults battling anxiety and depression and be able to point to Greinke as a source of hope and motivation. In one of the most pressure packed, challenging moments a person can face, when literal millions around the world were zoned on him, waiting to cast judgement, criticism and shame, a guy with a similar lived experience of you and I delivered one of the most iconic outings in professional sports history. Now think about everything you can do.

I had my story written. The motivational taglines and speech tidbits were prepared for all-time. A.J. Hinch inexplicably took that away from all of us, and that’s something I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive.