Zack Greinke had an interesting weekend. On Saturday, July 7th, he started a game against the Houston Astros in Texas. After just four pitches, he found himself hitting the showers early. Why, you ask? Well, he was covering first after a grounder went to the right side of the infield, but the runner was ruled safe, followed by Greinke spiking the baseball on the ground like he scored a touchdown, which warranted the ejection. Greinke pleaded with the first base umpire that he was mad at himself over the play and didn’t spike the ball because of a bad call. However, he was still forced to exit the game after throwing only four pitches.

Manager Ron Roenicke decided to bring Greinke back to start Sunday, after chats with his starter and the Milwaukee front office. Roenicke wasn’t planning on using him deep into the game, but the Brewers’ ace only went 3 innings and gave up 5 hits, 2 walks, and 3 runs on 5 strikeouts in the no-decision. Now, with the All-Star break upon us, Roenicke will once again put Greinke on the mound Friday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, giving him his third straight start for the Brewers.

When was the last time that happened in the same season? Red Faber of the Chicago White Sox did it in 1917 by starting both games of a doubleheader on September 3rd, then starting again the next day. Let’s hope Greinke can actually put together a solid start on Friday to make this rare occurrence a little more memorable, so we can erase the image of him looking like he did on Saturday, spiking a baseball as part of his hissy fit.

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