Zack Greinke’s scoreless streak ends at 45 2/3 innings; Dodgers lose

Reporting from NEW YORK â€”  His scoreless-innings streak having ended Sunday in the Dodgers’ 3-2, 10-inning defeat to the New York Mets, Zack Greinke was asked to reflect on the most dominant stretch of his 12-year career.

His response was characteristically blunt.

“If anything, I feel negative about it, having to deal with answering questions about it all the time,� he said.

Greinke pitched 45 2/3 consecutive shutout innings before Kirk Nieuwenhuis scored on pitcher Jacob deGrom’s fielder’s-choice grounder in the third inning. The run was one of two charged to Greinke over seven innings.

The streak was the fourth-longest in baseball’s post-1960 expansion era. Orel Hershiser, now a Dodgers broadcaster, set the all-time record of 59 consecutive scoreless innings with the Dodgers in 1988, breaking a record held by another Dodger, Don Drysdale, since 1968.

“Maybe it will get broken,� Greinke said. “I know five years ago or so, I thought that one and the DiMaggio streak were the two toughest.�

Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in 1941 remains the longest in major league history.

“Looks like people are getting closer to the Hershiser one now,� Greinke said. “Maybe eventually it might happen.�

Clayton Kershaw, who pitched a three-hit shutout against the Mets on Thursday, currently has a 29-inning scoreless streak. He had one of 41 innings last year.

This week was particularly hectic for Greinke, who returned to Los Angeles on Thursday for the birth of his first child, a boy. Greinke’s start was pushed back two days.

“Surprisingly, it wasn’t as distracting as you would think,� Greinke said. “Flying back and forth cross country wasn’t too bad.�

Greinke pointed to how he started the game by retiring the first six batters he faced.

“If it would have affected me, I would have started off bad and got better,� he said. “But I started off good and got worse.�

Greinke hit Nieuwenhuis with a pitch to start the bottom of the third inning. The next batter, Kevin Plawecki, singled to center field, and Nieuwenhuis reached third base after rookie Joc Pederson mishandled the ball.

With no outs and runners on the corners, deGrom hit a ground ball to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

Gonzalez threw to the plate, but Nieuwenhuis beat catcher Yasmani Grandal’s tag and scored. The Mets were ahead, 1-0.

Greinke, who claimed to not care about his historic run, said he didn’t think Gonzalez threw home for the sake of preserving his streak.

“I don’t want anyone doing something silly,� Greinke said. “Just have to play the game the way it’s supposed to be played. I think there it was a good chance to get him at home. It needed to be a really good throw and the throw was just a little bit off, I thought.�

Grandal said that if not for the two-year-old rule that prevents catchers from blocking the plate, Nieuwenhuis wouldn’t have scored.

“There’s no way he’s getting on the plate if the rule’s not there,� Grandal said.

Another hit batsman resulted in another run in the sixth inning. This time, Greinke plunked rookie Michael Conforto with the bases loaded to increase the Mets’ advantage to 2-0.

Greinke had hit three batters in his previous 19 starts.

“Didn’t really cross my mind that I was going to hit either one,� Greinke said. “Maybe should be more conscious of that.�

It was only the fifth time this season Greinke allowed more than one run.

However, Greinke was spared his first defeat in more than a month, as the Dodgers scored twice in the top of the ninth to send the game into extra innings.

With runners on first and second base in the 10th inning, former Dodgers third baseman Juan Uribe singled off Kenley Jansen to drive in the winning run for the Mets.

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Twitter: @dylanohernandez