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Royals-Indians Preview

Sep 25, 2010 - 3:09 AM By KATE HEDLIN STATS Writer

Kansas City (63-89) at Cleveland (62-91), 7:05 p.m. EDT

It's been a disappointing season for Zack Greinke, who voiced his frustrations again this week about the Kansas City Royals' lack of improvement.

However, he's done quite well when facing the Cleveland Indians this year.

The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner looks for his third win of the season against the Indians when the teams continue their four-game series Saturday.

After going 16-8 with a 2.16 ERA last year, Greinke (9-13, 4.00 ERA) hasn't come close to duplicating that success. He is 1-2 with a 5.27 ERA in September, and gave up six runs in six innings of a 7-5 loss to Detroit on Monday.

However, it hasn't completely been the right-hander's fault. The Royals (63-90) have provided him with 3.8 runs of support per game, down from the 4.2 they averaged last year during his starts.

Despite his poor results this season and his struggles over the last month, Greinke said fatigue isn't an issue.

"I'm starting to feel better actually," he told Major League Baseball's official website. "But about the midpoint of the year, it's kind of tough, realizing we weren't going to make it to the playoffs this year. ... You just had to find a way to re-motivate yourself when that stuff happens."

Last month, Greinke said he didn't want to be a part of another rebuilding effort, a stance he reiterated this week by saying that going through another rebuilding year wasn't "something that gets me excited."

The Royals are struggling to stay out of last place in the AL Central. They lost 7-3 Friday as Jayson Nix hit a pair of solo home runs and Shin-Soo Choo had three hits and drove in two runs. Kansas City leads the last-place Indians by a half-game.

Greinke is 2-0 with a 3.15 ERA in three starts against the Indians this season and hasn't lost to them in two years, going 5-0 with a 2.73 ERA in nine starts. He allowed three runs in eight innings of a 4-3, 10-inning loss Aug. 28.

Choo - arguably the Indians' best player - is 7 for 30 lifetime against Greinke, including 0 for 8 this year. Still, Choo is hitting .350 against the Royals this season with 18 RBIs.

"I pounded him in and he hit a ball in," Kansas City's Luke Hochevar said Friday. "I pounded him away and he hit a ball away. I pitched him backwards. He's seeing the ball good right now."

In his last start against the Indians, Greinke was opposed by Jeanmar Gomez (3-5, 4.96), who will take the mound for Cleveland on Saturday. Gomez gave up two runs in 5 2-3 innings in the win over the Royals just under one month ago.

The rookie right-hander has dropped his last three starts since. He gave up eight runs and 10 hits in 5 2-3 innings of a 9-3 loss to Minnesota on Monday.