Hurler’s struggles costly to Bombers
TORONTO — This is what pitching life has come down to for Sonny Gray. Forget about all the talk of a personal catcher, the Yankees right-hander needs a personal reliever. Preferably on some other team. Quickly. It’s not working, Yankees. Gray put together his shortest outing of this season Friday night in an ugly 6-2 loss to the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. This came one start after Gray’s previous shortest start of the season, against the Red Sox. On Friday night, he managed to get all of six outs, surrendering five earned runs on six hits. This is not just about finding a starter for the postseason. This is about sending Gray out there every five days to get hammered and losing valuable ground to the Red Sox. Forget about the playoffs. Gray is costing the Yankees the AL East. Aaron Boone keeps talking about fixing Gray, but perhaps this is something that cannot be fixed. Boone admitted “part of it right now is that we feel he is our best option.’’ The options need to change. On May 12, I wrote the only personal catcher who could help Gray was one placed on the other side of the outfield wall, and since then it has gotten much worse for Sonny Gray.
Over his last two outings Gray has surrendered 11 earned runs, 13 hits and 18 baserunners in just 4 ¹/3 innings of work.
Some pitchers just can’t cut it with the Yankees. That’s life. Move on. Quickly.
The big blow was a three-run home run by Justin Smoak on a hanging 0-1 slider with two outs that the lefty slugger deposited into the center-field seats, 404 feet from home plate.
Gray said, “I think it’s important for me to stay as positive as I can.’’
That’s living in a dream world.
Gray added that physically, “I feel great. I have a clear mind going into each start.’’
As for the pitch to Smoak, he said: “I threw a slider and he hit a homer. I was trying to throw a back-door slider and I maybe pulled it to the middle of the plate and he didn’t miss it.’’
The Yankees and their fans can dream about Jacob deGrom and his 1.79 ERA, but from the beginning I’ve pointed out there is no way the Mets are dealing their ace.
Gray’s ERA went from 5.44 to 5.85 with this dreadful performance.
The loss dropped his record to 5-7. The Yankees own 29 losses for the season. Gray, 28, owns seven of them. That is as many losses as Luis Severino, CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka have combined for all season.
Gray was 4-7 after coming over from the Athletics last July 31st in a deal for James Kaprelian, Jorge Mateo and Dustin Fowler.
The Yankees keep waiting for Gray to come around, but the reality of the situation is that Gray has been a losing pitcher in each of the past three seasons.
Perhaps Gray needs to just let it fly more. Perhaps this is more mental than physical.
“That’s a hard balance to strike as an athlete,’’ Boone said. “Where you are committed, focused, locked in, working at your craft but having a level of I’m just going to go out and let the chips fall a little bit. That’s a challenge always for an athlete, especially when you go through some struggles. Finding that place. I’ve been there personally where you just have to let go a little bit and trust the ability.’’
As a Yankee, Gray is 9-14. Over the past three seasons Gray is 20-30.
The Yankees and Brian Cashman must find another starter to replace Gray and perhaps it will be Toronto’s J.A. Happ, who will start Saturday against the Yankees. His price just went up. But Cashman will get another shot at finding a starter who can help the Yankees after picking up Gray last year.
Gray came into the night owning a 1.88 ERA over seven starts at Rogers Centre. So he was in a safe space and he still could not make it past two innings.
Sonny Gray offers the Yankees nothing but despair.