World Series: Astros’ Zack Greinke records historic pinch-hit single in Game 5

Houston Astros right-hander Zack Greinke turned the primary pitcher to document a pinch hit within the World Sequence since 1923 as part of the Astros’ Game 5 win on Sunday night. Greinke was requested by supervisor Dusty Baker to pinch-hit for Yimi Garcia throughout the fourth inning of the must-win recreation for the Astros. 

He answered the decision by lacing a single to proper discipline off Atlanta Braves reliever Jesse Chavez. It wasn’t a cheapie, both. In keeping with Statcast, Greinke’s hit had an exit velocity of 105.9 mph, making it the toughest hit ball of the evening for the Astros to that time within the recreation.

Here is a glance:

Earlier on Sunday, our Mike Axisa laid out why Recreation 5 may very well be the ultimate recreation in baseball historical past with no designated hitter:

Recreation 5 may very nicely be the final recreation with out the designated hitter in baseball historical past. The collective bargaining settlement expires Dec. 1 and the subsequent settlement is broadly anticipated to implement the common DH. MLB used the common DH throughout the shortened pandemic season in 2020. The wheels at the moment are in movement to make it everlasting.

If that is the case then Greinke, who had beforehand notched a single as a part of his Recreation 4 begin, represents a becoming face to the top of pitchers hitting. As Axisa famous, Greinke is “arguably the perfect hitting pitcher of the final 10 years or so (he is a .239/.280/.345 hitter since 2013).”

For these questioning, the final pitcher to document a pinch hit throughout the World Sequence was Jack Bentley in 1923, per Jayson Stark of The Athletic. Bentley truly recorded a pair of pinch hits as a member of the New York Giants. (The Giants would lose the sequence in six video games to the New York Yankees.)