On Thursday night, Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Zack Greinke took a no-hitter moderately deep into his start against the Washington Nationals. Greinke prevented the Nationals from recording a knock until the seventh inning, when he yielded two. Some pitchers might be disappointed that their run at immortality fell short. Greinke isn't one of them.
Speaking after the game, Greinke conceded that he wouldn't want to deal with the publicity that throwing a no-hitter would involve. Rather, recording a no-no would be "more of a hassle than anything," in Greinke's estimation, per Zach Buchanan of the Athletic.
Zack Greinke says he doesn't care about throwing a no-hitter. He'd rather not deal with the attention he'd get. "It'd be more of a hassle than anything."
— Zach Buchanan (@ZHBuchanan) June 14, 2019
Greinke has a history of being blunt. Take, for instance, the time when Greinke pulled aside a struggling Alex Gordon to offer the helpful advice that he should hit a home run the way Greinke had:
Anyway, Gordon followed Greinke into the room and got ready to receive some advice.
On the television, cued up, was the home run Greinke hit against Arizona in his fourth big league at-bat. They watched it together. And then watched it again.
"Do more of that," Greinke said.
Or the time Greinke responded to news of his promotion to the Show by asking if the organization would be open to allowing him to convert to shortstop:
🚨 New Zack Greinke story. 🚨 https://t.co/s21TREgzaX pic.twitter.com/PUpjFuoB6J
— Roger Cormier (@yayroger) April 14, 2019
All of this to say: it's positively Greinke to shrug off losing a no-hitter because he wouldn't have to deal with the fallout.
It's also positively Greinke that he would have another good start. Through 15 turns in the rotation, he now has a 2.65 ERA and a 6.07 strikeout-to-walk ratio.