Royals' Zack Greinke: Excellent in return

Greinke allowed two hits and struck out five without walking a batter over four scoreless innings Tuesday versus the Athletics.

Greinke was also efficient, throwing 38 of 53 pitches for strikes in his first outing since Aug. 6. He was dealing with elbow soreness, but it looks like that's out of the way now. The veteran right-hander still sports an ugly 5.34 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 78:15 K:BB through 114.2 innings over 23 outings this season. Greinke may still need a few more outings to build up his pitch count. He's projected for a home appearance versus the Pirates next week, but it's unclear if he'll start or work as a piggyback option again.