LOS ANGELES — Hunter Greene has announced his presence with authority.
The flame-throwing phenom from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame made his second major-league start Saturday night for the Cincinnati Reds, pitching into the sixth inning at Dodger Stadium.
In his first two starts, the 22-year-old Greene has thrown 172 pitches over 10 1/3 innings. Of those, 113 have been fastballs — 59 of those have registered 100 mph or more, topping out at 101.7 mph. His 39 pitches at 100 mph or higher in Saturday’s game are a record since pitch-tracking began in 2008.
But, major-league hitters could time a bullet if given enough chances and Trea Turner did. He turned on a 99-mph fastball from Greene in the sixth inning, sending it into the left-field pavilion for a two-run home run. The Dodgers piled on after Greene left the scene, scoring four runs in the inning and beating the Reds 5-2 for their fifth consecutive win.
“It’s a special arm,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s a great young man. We had our hands full. … He was getting on us. Then he would mix in the slider and the changeup as well. We clearly didn’t get a lot of good swings off him until that Trea homer.”
By comparison, it was a slow-speed chase for Reds hitters against Dodgers starter Julio Urias — and less successful. Urias didn’t allow a hit until Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson scorched a one-hopper through second baseman Max Muncy and into center field with one out in the fifth inning.
It was a significant improvement over Urias’ first start of the season Sunday in Colorado when he didn’t retire a batter in the third inning, didn’t strike out any at all and showed decreased velocity on his fastball (an average of 91.4 mph) — a concern after he also showed less life on his fastball during the shortened spring training.
“I just felt like myself out there on the mound,” Urias said in Spanish. “Obviously my last start was a bit weird in every way. Obviously it was Colorado, the wind and everything that went on in that game. But we’re back home now and I felt like myself today and we saw the results.”
After some work with the pitching coaches between starts, Urias pitched five scoreless innings, striking out five. His fastball velocity began to tick back up towards his career average (94 mph), coming in at 92.3 mph over the 65-pitch outing.
“Just adjustments with things that we did well with last year,” Urias said of his work between starts. “Obviously with the short spring and my last start, we felt that it was important for us to make some adjustments. We watched videos from last season and with the bullpen that I threw during the week, I feel like it played a part with the successful outing today.”
The relief relay of Evan Phillips, David Price, Mitch White and Daniel Hudson combined to allow just three hits and kept the shutout intact until the ninth inning.
For the first five innings, though, the Dodgers were just hoping to catch up to Greene’s heat.
“That was what we were hoping. We were hoping we’d get him that third time through (the lineup),” Roberts said. “You could see him a little gassed. He was kind of starting to not finish with the breaking ball. The fastball didn’t quite have the life. But, man, what a talent.”
Just one of Greene’s last 14 pitches hit 100 mph. Austin Barnes started the go-ahead rally in the bottom of the sixth, lining a single into right field. At 1-and-1 to Turner, Greene pumped another fastball, still a robust 99 mph. But it was over the heart of the plate and Turner sent it 381 feet into the left-field pavilion.
“He was tough, basically sitting 101 every pitch,” Turner said. “There were a lot of strikes too for how hard he throws. He wasn’t really going to give us anything. We were going to have to earn it.
“(I was) just trying to relax and not do too much. Sometimes when you see 100 you want to do more and gear up and get ready for it. That mentality sometimes makes it a little tougher. Just tried to do less and put the barrel on the ball.”
It was one of three hits in the game for Turner who extended his hitting streak to 27 games. The streak started last September and was interrupted by the postseason, an offseason and a lockout before technically resuming last week.
“It kind of feels weird to say a 20-something game hitting streak when you take a five-month break,” Turner said. “But I guess that’s how it works.”
After Trea Turner’s homer, Greene struck out Freddie Freeman (his sixth strikeout of the game) but the ball got away from Stephenson, allowing Freeman to reach base. After Justin Turner popped out, Reds manager David Bell pulled Greene from the game.
Edwin Rios kept the inning going with a two-out single. After a wild pitch advanced the runners, Chris Taylor drove in two with a single to right.
The four-run inning was the seventh time in the first eight games of the season that the Dodgers’ offense had scored three or more runs in an inning.
They added an insurance run in the seventh when Gavin Lux drew a leadoff walk, went to third on another Trea Turner single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Freeman.
The Dodgers have outscored their opponents 31-8 during their winning streak.
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