"He's pitching how I did three or four years ago," Greinke said. "He's just executing his pitches as good as he possibly can."  Life was easy for Greinke back then. Draw up a game plan, pick up a baseball and throw it.  Greinke was the best pitcher in baseball in 2009, a title that presently belongs to his left-handed teammate. Greinke won the American League Cy Young Award that season pitching for the Kansas City Royals, posting a 2.14 earned-run average.  His fastball had life. His breaking ball was sharp.  Some time between then and now, pitching became more difficult. Greinke can't really explain why or how. What he knows is that he has adjusted.  If Kershaw is the Dodgers' No. 1 pitcher, new-look Greinke is No. 1A, giving the club a formidable 1-2 punch at the top of its rotation.  Greinke will take the national stage Friday, when he takes the mound for the Dodgers against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.  "Now, I'm more thinking along with the hitter and able to process more stuff," the right-hander said.  Comparing himself to Kershaw, the ever-candid Greinke said, "I'm not saying I'm better, but I think I'm thinking more out there than he is."  Kershaw is also regarded by his teammates as a cerebral pitcher.  Catcher A.J. Ellis said of Greinke, "This is a guy at the top of my list when I'm trying to find someone to have dinner with on the road. I'm going to walk away having learned something. This guy makes me rethink the way I think about the game of baseball. He always has a different spin on some classical thoughts."  Greinke spent a decade in the major leagues before reaching this point.  He described his career as an existential crisis of sorts, as he wavered between thinking he should be a power pitcher and thinking he should be a command pitcher. Most pitchers can be only one because they lack either the necessary velocity or the control to be the other. Greinke, who used to throw in the high 90s, could be either — but not at the same time.  "If I start to focus to throw power, then I have trouble dialing it back down," Greinke said. "I can't turn it on and off."  Because of this, Greinke said, "I've always gone back and forth."  Finally, at age 29, he has settled on an identity, deciding that he would rely less on his arm and more on his brain.  "This is the first year I've tried to not be a power pitcher," he said.  The result: his best season since he won his Cy Young Award. In the first year of his six-year, $147-million deal with the Dodgers, Greinke had a record of 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA.  The numbers could have been even better. Greinke was bothered by elbow pain late in spring training. Then, two starts into the regular season, he suffered a fractured collarbone in a bench-clearing incident involving the San Diego Padres and missed a month.
ST. LOUIS &mdash; When  Zack Greinke  watches  Clayton Kershaw  pitch, he is reminded of a pitcher with whom he is very familiar.