Bryce Harper not impressed by Zack Greinke, strike zone

Don't count Bryce Harper as one of the many impressed by Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke, who blanked the Nationals for eight frames this afternoon to extend his scoreless streak to 43 2/3 innings.

"For me, I don't think he was very tough," Harper said. "He's a great pitcher, he does what he does, but when you're getting six inches off the plate, it's pretty tough to face him."

Harper clearly wasn't happy with the inconsistently wide strike zone home plate umpire Bill Miller was using today. The Nats slugger was 0-for-2 with a couple of strikeouts and a walk against Greinke. In the first, Harper flung his helmet and bat in disgust after Miller rung him up on a 94 mph heater, which appeared well off the dish.

Greinke struck out a season-high 11 while allowing just three singles and a walk in the Dodgers' 5-0 win. He hasn't allowed a run in his last six starts dating to back to June 18, joining fellow Dodgers' greats Orel Hershiser (1988) and Don Drysdale (1968) as the only pitchers in the live ball era (since 1920) to not allow a run in six consecutive starts.

"Of course, he has his changeup and his sinker and he elevates," Harper relented. "He's a good pitcher. He's doing what he's doing to help that team over there, but I don't want to give him too much credit because I've gotta face him again. That's the biggest thing. I don't really want to give him too much credit because of that reason, but he's a damn good pitcher."

The Nationals were expecting runs to be hard to come by in the series, especially having to face Greinke and three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw. But the Nationals didn't manage to cross the plate against either while piling up a combined 25 strikeouts over the last two days.

It won't get any easier as the Mets come in to D.C. tomorrow, breathing down the Nats' necks in the NL East and prepared to throw three more dominant right-handers in Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard.

"Kershaw and Greinke are very good," Harper said. "The next three guys we're facing with the Mets, of course they are very good also. I think we've had pretty good success against the Mets facing them, so just go in there and try to do what we do and not worry about who we're facing."