CINCINNATI — Every baseball game has multiple turning points — times when a swing being a split second sooner or a fraction of an inch higher could change everything.What could’ve happened had a ball been squared up, an outfielder been positioned differently or an umpire’s call flipped?Samuel Basallo’s three-run homer in the first inning certainly set the tone for Saturday’s 8-5 Baltimore Orioles victory over the Cincinnati Reds, but starter Hunter Greene had five chances to avoid facing Basallo in the first.Making his first start of the season after spring elbow surgery to remove loose bodies, Greene gave up a single on his first pitch. He quickly got two outs, though, and had Baltimore first baseman Pete Alonso one strike from ending the inning. Alonso fouled off three 2-2 pitches and watched two more go by for balls, including a 100.1 mph fastball Greene pulled for an easy take for ball four.“I was making great pitches,” Greene said. “I was getting to the inside. I was getting to his hands. He doesn’t like the ball inside. So I was obviously pitching to my strengths and his weakness, a great hitter, but I was definitely beating him, and I just wasn’t able to put him away.”
Saturday was Greene’s first start since his three-inning start in a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of last season’s National League wild-card series. After getting to the fourth inning with no more damage Saturday, he allowed the first four hitters in the fourth to reach on a pair of hits and a pair of walks before he struck out leadoff man Gunnar Henderson and allowed a two-run double by Adley Rutschman. That ended his night with a career-high-tying eight runs on seven hits with four walks and seven strikeouts.That line could’ve been the same had he retired Alonso in the first, but getting out of that inning unscathed could’ve changed it in other ways. It was, at least, the first inflection point, and it went against Greene.“That racks the pitch count up. Obviously, that’s been something that I’ve battled pretty much my whole career so far, like a lot of foul tips,” Greene said. “And even though I am hitting corners, and still expanding, guys will still choke up and just foul, foul, foul. When I am going good, I am able to miss those bats. Obviously, that was lacking today.”Greene threw just six pitches before Alonso came to the plate for a nine-pitch walk. Had Alonso swung through Greene’s 2-2 slider in the heart of the plate for strike three, Greene would’ve been through the inning in 11 pitches.Instead, Greene threw 24 in the first inning and 18 in each of the next two, entering the fourth with 60 pitches.Call it rust, lack of command or just poor execution. Regardless, Greene threw 29 pitches in the fourth and retired just one batter before manager Terry Francona ended his first start of the season with four more runs in and another runner on second base.“The ball came out good,” Francona said. “We talked before the game — you hope that what he had was enough, but this is a little different competition than (the minor leagues). It’s been a while. Hopefully, he gets his legs under him, and the next one will be more like Hunter.”
