Dodgers: The Three Most Important ex-Dodgers in the WS

Zack Greinke

Most of the talk this series has been about the mouth-watering starting pitching matchups. The Gerrit Cole-Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander-Stephen Strasburg are all people have been talking about.

This is for a good reason, Cole and Verlander will likely finish 1st and 2nd in AL Cy Young voting, while Scherzer and Strasburg will likely both finish in the top 5 on the NL side.

However, people seem to forget about the third matchup of Greinke-Corbin. Both of the former Diamondbacks are among the best pitchers in the bigs.

Greinke has to perform well for the Astros this series. Before entering the series, Greinke was still going to be an important game for the team. Now, after falling in game 1, the Astros will be leaning on Greinke’s production even more.

While writing this, game 2 has yet to start. If the Nationals somehow find a way to go up 2-0 in the series, Zack Greinke will instantly become the MOST important player in this series for the Astros.

If Astros even up the series, Greinke will still face an enormous amount of pressure as he will try to steal home-field advantage back from Washington. The Astros traded for him right before the deadline, and now they need him to perform on the biggest stage of the season.

If Greinke falters, the Astros can be in a world of trouble being down 2-1 or 3-0 with two games to go in Washington. However, if Greinke can perform well, he can sway the momentum back in favor of the AL Champion Astros.