Oldtimers Day Luncheon

Cardinals at Dodgers, 5:08 p.m.
Joc Pederson, CF
Yasiel Puig, RF
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Justin Turner, 3B
Andre Ethier, LF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Kiké Hernandez, 2B
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Zack Greinke, P

By Jon Weisman

In contrast to Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke is someone whose peripheral stats haven’t quite lived up to his ERA this season.

Though he had a streak of five consecutive starts allowing one run or less snapped Tuesday in Colorado, Greinke’s 2015 ERA is still a wonderful 1.97, but his fielding-independent ERA according to Fangraphs is 3.06 and his xFIP is 3.50. Greinke’s strikeouts per nine innings are at 7.4 this season, compared with 8.1 for his career and 9.2 in 2014.

Greinke’s WHIP is 0.95, lower than even what he had in his outstanding 2009 American League Cy Young Award-winning season. That’s thanks in part to a career-low .246 opponents’ batting average on balls in play, compared with .307 for his career.

One thing that can’t be denied is how well Greinke has pitched at Dodger Stadium. In 243 2/3 career regular-season innings here, Greinke has a 2.29 ERA with 239 strikeouts and a 0.99 WHIP.

Including the postseason, Greinke has made 17 consecutive starts at Dodger Stadium and 29 of his past 30 allowing three earned runs or less, the only exception being when he allowed four to the Pirates on June 1, 2014.