IT’S SONNY! ( WITH A CHANCE OF PAIN )
Gray gets ball first vs. mighty Tribe
CLEVELAND — When Brian Cashman acquired David Robertson, Todd Frazier and Tommy Kahnle from the White Sox on July 18, the Yankees were 3 ½ games back of the Red Sox in the AL East.
The move was viewed as Cashman believing his club had a chance to get past the AL East leaders.
Thirteen days later, Cashman made a deal that sent a message to the rest of the American League: even though the Yankees were 5 ½ lengths out: they were going for it.
Cashman acquired Sonny Gray from the A’s at the July 31 deadline for three high-end prospects: Jorge Mateo, James Kaprielian and Dustin Fowler.
Though Cashman didn’t specif ically have Thursday night’s Game 1 of the best-of-five ALDS against the Indians at Progressive Field in mind when he got Gray, the right-hander did.
“From the moment I stepped foot in the clubhouse it was something I was hoping to do,’’ Gray said of starting a game of this magnitude. “It was something I was hoping to — that we would eventually get into the postseason and play an important role in the postseason. I got that vibe right away, my first day in New York. Now we are here and ready to go.’’
Poor run support and some sloppy outings led Gray to post a 4-7 record with a 3.72 ERA in 11 starts for the Yankees. Because Joe Girardi opted to start Luis Severino in the wild-card game against the Twins, that left Gray, who last worked last Thursday when he flushed a 4-1 lead over the Rays, as the leading candidate to be the Yankees’ Game 1 starter.
“He is a competitor who has had good days against us and bad days. We don’t take him lightly,’’ Indians inf ielder-turned-outfielder Jason Kipnis said before the Tribe worked out at Progressive Field on Wednesday. “We want to get him uncomfortable and wait for a mistake because if he gets comfortable with the breaking ball ...’’
Having been on the 2009 world champion Yankees, Brett Gardner understands how important solid starting pitching is in October. And he sees the excitement oozing out of Gray’s skin.
“One of the reasons we got him is to pitch in games like this and he is pumped about it,’’ Gardner said of Gray, who worked two postseason games in 2013 with the A’s against the Tigers and went 0-1 with a 2.08 ERA.
Gray didn’t need the reports from the Yankees scouts who followed the Indians the past month. Everyone knows t he Tribe can hit.
“They have a really balanced lineup, top to bottom. You come out and make pitches and see what happens,’’ said Gray who is 3-3 with a 3.38 ERA in eight c a re er reg ular-season games against the Indians and was 1-2 versus them this year with a 4.86 ERA. “Right now we are playing as good as we have played since I have been here. We are ready for any type of challenge that anyone can bring to us. If we can stay within ourselves and do what we do really well we feel like we can play with anyone.’’
Girardi could have gone in a number of di ffe re nt ways because CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka had enough rest to start Game 1. Instead, Girardi’s order is Gray, Sabathia and Tanaka, with the manager planning on Severino for Game 4.
“If you look at some of the outings he has had against them, the raw numbers he has had against them, he’s fared as well as any pitcher that we have,’’ Girardi said of Gray. “We could have gone a lot of different directions. We could have went another way. It’s just what we chose to do.’’