By Hal McCoy
The Real Hunter Greene stood tall Friday night, as tall as the 41-story Great American Tower in downtown Cincinnati.
Five days ago, an impostor wore Greene’s uniform when he gave up eight runs, seven hits and four walks to the Baltimore Orioles in only 3 2/3 innings.
That was Greene’s nervous and shaky season’s debut after four months on the injured list.
His second start Friday night in Great American Ball Park was vintage Greene — seven innings, no runs, one walk, 12 strikeouts as the Cincinnati Reds stopped the Chicago Cubs, 4-0.
It was the ninth time this year the Cubs have been shut out and the sixth shutout for Reds’ pitchers.
Chicago’s leadoff hitter, Pete Crow-Armstrong waa hitting .414 with 12 home runs over his previous 22 games when he stepped into the batter’s box to start the game.
Greene struck him out on four pitches, the strikeout pitch a 100.3 miles per hour fastball.
And this game was over.
Greene was in completely and utterly in command and control of this game from start to finish. He struck out Crow-Armstrong three times and also struck out Michael Conforto three times.
He threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the first 17 Cubs hitters and the Cubs, winners in 18 of their previous 25 games, knew they were seeing the same Greene they saw last September.
In that one, Greene pitched a complete game shutout during a 1-0 win. And Greene has never given up more than five runs in his eight starts against the Cubs.
“Command was my focus between starts,” Greene told reporters after the game. “Like I mentioned after the first game, the excitement got to me. I didn’t do a good job of staying within myself and wasn’t my best.
But this time?
“I stayed within my body and just let the ball do its thing,” he said. “I stayed true to that. Because of my work between starts I was able to execute today.”
And he executed the Cubs, who had beaten the Reds four straight this season before Friday.
Somebody mentioned that his performance might have been the best of his career, but Greene disagreed.
“I feel like I’ve had better games than that,” he said. “I definitely feel like I’ve been sharper and had more Ks (strikeouts). But, yes, that was a very efficient game today.”
Cubs starter Shota Imanaga was difficult for the Reds, too, and it was 0-0 through four innings.
Elly De La Cruz was 0 for 15 against the left-handed Imanaga when he led the fifth inning.
Now he is 1 for 16 after turning on Imanaga’s 91 miles per hour fastball and driving it 400 feet into the left field seats for a 1-0 Reds lead.
“I just keep grinding, I never give up,” said De La Cruz. “No matter the situation in the game, we just keep grinding.”
And De La Cruz knew his frustrations facing Imanaga.
“It felt good, very good. My first one against him,” De La Cruz said with a smile. “He got me all the time, so thank God I got him with my first one.”
It was De La Cruz’s 15th homer, the ninth hitting right-handed for the switch-hitting shortstop.
And it was still 1-0 in the seventh and the Reds were into the Cubs’ depleted bullpen. They have 11 relief pitchers on the injured list.
Jake Woodford started the seventh and retired the first Cincinnati hitter. But De La Cruz, now batting left-handed, drilled a ball under first baseman Michael Busch’s glove.
The ball was hit so hard that De La Cruz turned it into a triple. He scored on Sal Stewart’s sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
Spencer Steer, playing center field for the first time in his life at any level, hit one off shortstop Dansby Swanson’s glove. It was playable and would have been the third out, but Steer was credited with his third hit of the night.
JJ Bleday then nearly put a dent in the right-center smoke stacks with his 15th homer, a 417-foot blast that made it 4-0.
Emilo Pagan, another Reds’ player who is fresh off a lengthy stay on the injured list, pitched the ninth and struck out the side as Reds pitchers struck out 16 Cubs.
Of Greene’s mastery, De La Cruz said, “He was nasty, man, he was real nasty. He was throwing his pitches and doing whatever he wanted to do. He did a great job today.”
Manager Tito Francona’ss assessment of Greene’s performance was succinct.
“He pounded the zone with really good stuff,” he said, referring to 100 miles per hour fastballs, duck-diving sliders and a few splitters.
“He had power on his fastball, then when they started cheating up on his fastball, he threw some off-speed stuff,” he added. “He was good.”
When asked about his offense, Francona smiled briefly and said, “They way he (Imanaga) pitched, we didn’t have anything for awhile.
“Then all of a sudden, Elly puts us on the board, then Sal had a nice piece of hitting with Elly on third (a sacrifice fly), then Bleday gave us a little bit of cushion with his homer in case somebody makes a mistake.”
The Reds made no mistakes on this night and the only visible mistake was that the Chicago Cubs showed up to face Greene.