SON' NEEDS TO RISE

Yanks have to get more from Gray

WHAT does it say about Sonny Gray that his first month as a Yankee can be described better by his last name than his first?

Or to be more fair, wouldn’t you describe the 2017 Yankees’ outlook overall as more gray than sunny and note that the right-hander hasn’t done enough to change that?

The diminutive righty has pitched well enough to win every time he has worn a Yankees uniform. To rearrange and tweak those words, however: Well, he hasn’t won enough in a Yankees uniform. Particularly against the Red Sox.

Gray lost for a second time in two rivalry attempts, and in dropping a 4-1 decision to the Sawx on Friday night at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees fell 5½ games out of the American League East lead.

“I just wasn’t quite good enough tonight,” Gray said.

He couldn’t keep up with his Boston counterpart, Doug Fister, the veteran whom the Red Sox picked up off the scrap heap earlier this season. The home team’s first two batters, Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge, stroked back-toback doubles for a 1-0 edge, and that proved to be it for Joe Girardi’s group, as Fister allowed just four hits over seven innings, walking one and striking out five. Gray permitted only five hits over his seven innings, walking one and striking out nine. Unfortunatel y for Gray and the Yankees, three of those hits left the ballpark, with Eduardo Nunez’s third-inning, two- run shot to left field catapulting the visitors ahead (maybe the Yankees shouldn’t discourage Nunez from bunting) and Andrew Benintendi’s fifth-inning blast to right field and Hanley Ramirez’s round-tripper to center field providing insurance. In giving up four earned runs, Gray established a new personal worst as a Yankee. “Any time you go out there and you give up three homers, it’s tough on the whole team,” Gray said. “It kind of takes all the momentum or anything you might be trying to put together and completely flips it to the other team. It’s hard to win games when your pitcher gives up three homers.” “He just made some mistakes,” Girardi said. “They’re a good hitting team. When you make mistakes, they’re going to make you pay.” The Yankees have paid plenty during this challenging homestand, as they’ve lost four out of five games and will look to Masahiro Tanaka to turn things back in the right direction. “We certainly feel that we need to win this series,” Chase Headley said, as the team tries to win the division. Just to qualify for the playoffs, the Yankees could use some more runs — Girardi noted how many strong starts have gone for naught — and a little more from Gray. Even though Gray owns a perfectly acceptable 3.16 ERA over 37 innings as a Yankee, a combination of poor run support, lousy fielding behind him and (relative) struggles against the Red Sox have produced a 2-4 record as a Yankee and therefore a lament he hasn’t contributed as much as hoped. Gray’s team- mates have given him a total of 13 runs while he’s in the game. In his first start, Aug. 3 in Cleveland, the Yankees committed three errors in Gray’s first inning. Starting pitchers talk about their “slots” as the rotation turns and how certain slots tend to get run support and certain ones don’t. Gray has not drawn a good slot.

On Aug. 20 at Fenway Park, Gray allowed only two runs, yet he lasted only five innings, throwing 106 pitches in suffering a 5-1 loss.

“It’s frustrating, just frustrating, to lose in general,” Gray said. “But just three swings kind of beat us tonight.”

Yeah, he couldn’t move past the three homers to talk about the bigger picture. The much bigger picture is that Gray, acquired from the A’s on July 31, looks like part of the solution. He possesses good stuff, grinds through adversity and takes accountability for his actions.

In this final month, though, Gray’s second month here, it’s all about the small picture. About doing enough to get your team the victory. If he can climb from quite good to very good, he just might nudge his team’s shortterm forecast toward clearer, sunnier skies.