Quick-thinking Zack Greinke helped Royals get an out in manner rarely seen in baseball

Royals pitcher Zack Greinke has won six Gold Glove awards in his 20 seasons in Major League Baseball, thanks to a combination of quick reflexes and intelligence.

Greinke, who will turn 40 in October, showed off that defensive prowess Friday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The White Sox opened the second inning with four straight singles, the last off the bat of designated hitter Jake Burger. That single to left field brought home a run, but left fielder Nick Pratto got to the ball quickly and threw home.

Third base coach Eddie Rodriguez held Andrew Vaughn from trying to score, but Gavin Sheets apparently didn’t see Vaughn stop. Sheets, who had been on first, overran second base.

Or maybe Sheets wasn’t expecting what Greinke did next.

Greinke was near the third-base line as the throw from Pratto was headed home. Greinke cut off the throw and fired to second to get Sheets, who was tagged out.

It was a rare 7-1-4 putout.

By being next to the third-base line, Greinke was in the right spot at the right time.

“I’ve been going there pretty much every time for the past like eight years and I think it’s the second time it’s actually worked,” Greinke said. “And then one time in spring training, maybe it might have worked, so it doesn’t happen very often.”

While pitchers usually back up home plate, Greinke thinks it’s unnecessary.

“All the outfielders always hit the cutoff man all the time now,” Greinke said. “They used to throw it all the way to catcher in the air and now they never make bad throws, it seems like. It felt like a waste of time going behind home plate.”

After getting the out, Greinke smiled as he walked back to the mound.

“I thought I remember having like a long conversation with one of our coaches about it and them telling me I should go behind the plate,” Greinke said. “But I can’t remember if that is a fact that that happened or not.”

Second baseman Michael Massey was asked if he’d ever been part of a 7-1-4 putout.

“No,” Massey said with a smile. “That was a great read by Zack, obviously, seeing the guy kind of overran second. But I just put my glove there and he basically put it right on there, so it was a great throw and a big play at the time.”

That bit of defensive wizardry helped stave off a bigger inning. The next batter hit a sacrifice fly and Greinke got a strikeout to end the frame.

Greinke’s throw to second was measured at 83 mph. The pitch to Burger that led to the unusual play was 87 mph.