SON' DOWNER
Gray gets no support in another hard-luck defeat for Yankees
There never is a good time to waste a gem from the starting pitcher. It stings in April, when the games count as much as they do at any other time of the season. It hurts a little more in August, when the baseball calendar is on the back nine.
Yet, when a performance like the one Sonny Gray delivered Tuesday night against the Rays at Citi Field is sabotaged by the Dead Bat Society with the Yankees still dreaming of catching the Red Sox, it cuts deep.
“Any time you lose, it’s tough to swallow, no matter how it happens,” Gray said after his eight-inning effort wasn’t good enough to avoid a 2-1 loss witnessed by 21,024.
Adeiny Hechavarria, the No. 9 hitter, muted the pro-Yankee crowd by crushing a first-pitch fastball from Gray for a solo, tiebreaking homer in the eighth.
“It was a fastball, and he hit a homer. It’s the same pitch I got a lot of people out on,” said Gray, who has given up seven homers in 50 2/3 innings as a Yankee. “I am going to challenge guys, and I got beat there. I got beat in the point of the game that you can’t get beat, and it was the deciding factor in winning or losing the ballgame.”
Nobody would blame the very accountable Gray if he used a jug of whiskey to help him swallow giving up two runs, five hits, striking out nine and walking one but still losing.
In Gray’s eight starts, the Yankees have scored 24 runs. And in two of those games, the Yankees have scored nine and six times.
Coupled with the AL East-leading Red Sox clobbering the A’s, the loss dropped the Yankees four games back with 18 remaining.
“Me and Didi [Gregorius] have been talking about the same thing: When he is pitching, we don’t score,” Starlin Castro said of the lack of support for Gray. “He pitched a great game. Next time, hopefully we’ll hit like when we do when the other guys are on the mound.” Gray, who is 9-10 overall and 3-5 in eight starts as a Yankee, gave up a home run to Kevin Kiermaier on the first pitch of the home half of the first, and Lucas Duda followed with a double into the right-field corner.
Instead of being a springboard to a big inning for the Rays, it worked for Gray.
“The leadoff homer lit a fire under me,” Gray said. “It made me take it up a notch.”
After Duda’s double Gray retired 12 of the next 13. With runners at the corners and one out Gray fanned Hechavarria and Kiermaier to start a string of nine straight outs.
Credit Gray for being accountable, but one run on Matt Holliday’s first-inning double was the bulk of the lineup’s contribution to the cause.
From the second through ninth, the Yankees didn’t bat with a runner in scoring position and got one hit (Brett Gardner’s single in the sixth) and a walk (Todd Frazier in the fifth). Used as a pinch hitter for Clint Frazier against Tommy Hunter to lead off the eighth, the left-handed swinging Jacoby Ellsbury, who was 7-for-20 with a .350 average versus the right-hander, popped up the first pitch. Hunter then struck out Gardner and Aaron Judge looking to close the eighth, and Alex Colome closed it with a perfect ninth.
“Most of the time, you give up two runs you should win the game,” Joe Girardi said.
Unless you are Gray and pitched for the Yankees on Tuesday night.