Sonny maintains a sunny outlook despite struggles
Some guys might sulk, carry the weight of the free world on their shoulders. Bad outings can cause that. But Yankees right-hander Sonny Gray, coming off a couple of performances that even in polite circles could only be described as lousy, is staying upbeat.
“There’s nothing I can do about it at this point,” said Gray, who is scheduled to pitch Wednesday at Yankee Stadium against the Twins “The last start didn’t go well but I’m always like, ‘Who cares?’ It’s not weighing on me, it’s not bothering me. I feel I am the same person I was three weeks ago.
“It’s not going to change me, my personality. It’s not going to change how I go about my everyday business.”
Gray is not happy about the past two starts in which he totaled 6 ¹/3 innings and got rapped for 11 earned runs that left his season ERA at an unsightly 8.27.
“I’ve had a lot of success, but I’ve also had a lot of bad outings in my life,” Gray said. “You don’t want it to continue, but at the end of the day, I’ve had two bad outings in a row and I can think of a slew of times I had two bad outings in a row, even worse than what I just had. To me it’s not a life or death situation.”
No, it’s not. In New York, it’s far more important than life or death.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone also sounds less panicky than the average fan. Boone expressed confidence Gray is “close” to being the pitcher the Yankees hoped they were getting when they acquired him from Oakland last summer.
“I’ve seen a guy that I think is close. The stuff is there. He’s fallen behind a little bit too much … that first pitch,” Boone said. “Over time, that’s going to bear out. … It’s a lot easier when you’re ahead, especially when you have the equipment Sonny has.
“So I feel he’s really close to putting it together and having a good outing but the key for him is just to trust, pound the zone, getting ahead in the count. If he does that, he’ll start to build some momentum. … I still think once he gets going, he has the ability to get on a roll because the talent is absolutely real and physi- cally he’s in a good place.”
Gray hasn’t gotten blearyeyed watching film. He hasn’t especially worked on any one thing. He thought before Friday’s outing — an eventual 3 ¹/3 inning, fiveearned run clunker against Toronto — that he had found something in how he positioned his hands. He still got whacked.
“I haven’t worked on anything in particular,” Gray said. “I’m not a film guy. Some guys are. And it works for [them]. … I go about it as another day and hope to show up and get my work in and get ready for my next start. People go about it in different ways. You see people struggle and they come in and they’re sulking and their heads are down. You can tell they have something weighing on them. Honestly, for me it’s just another day.”
Gray on Wednesday will pitch to catcher Austin Romine, with whom he has enjoyed better success than with Gary Sanchez. In two games with Romine, Gray threw 10 ¹/3 innings with 12 strikeouts and a 3.60 ERA. His two games with Sanchez show 6 ¹/3 innings, three strikeouts and a 15.63 ERA.
Boone said using Romine is a matter of matchups, not a “personal catcher” thing.
“I don’t want to get into, ‘He’s catching this guy all the time,’ ” Boone said. “We’ll pick the matchup maybe we like a little bit better. We’ll be cognizant of that.”
And the manager is cognizant of how Gray has handled adversity.
“He’s OK. It’s obviously been a tough go these first few weeks, but that’s part of it. I don’t care who you are, this game will get you at some point,” Boone said.