SON OF A GUN
Gray actually pitches well as Yanks get needed win
Sonny Gray, after two brutal starts threatened his spot in the rotation, delivers during six shutout innings of three-hit ball as the Yankees bounced back from a walk-off loss with a 9-0 rout of the lowly Orioles to split the four-game set in Baltimore.
BALTIMORE — If you believe a six-inning masterpiece against an inept lineup is going to catapult Sonny Gray to being the best pitcher in the American League following the All Star break, take a pill.
Even the right-hander acknowledged his impressive performance versus the Orioles that resulted in a 9-0 Yankees win in front of a paltry Camden Yards crowd of 17,808 was simply one outing.
“It’s one start,’’ Gray said of blanking the Orioles in six frames, allowing three hits, a walk and matching a season-high with eight strikeouts. “I felt good coming into it and better coming out of it.’’
We won’t know until August or later if the 28-year-old righthander turned around a dismal season Wednesday night, but comebacks have to start somewhere and Gray was dominant in stopping a horrific three-game slide and improving to 6-7.
“The curveball was good and it had some depth on it,’’ said Gray, who is 3-0 with a 0.51 ERA in three starts at Camden Yards since becoming a Yankee last August. In 17 2/3 innings there, he has whiffed 19 and issued three walks.
Catcher Austin Romine, who homered, glowed about Gray’s curveball. “Best I have seen,’’ Romine said. Greg Bird’s first career grand slam off Dylan Bundy highlighted a five-run inning for the Yankees in the fifth. It was Bird’s second homer in as many games and he has eight RBIs in the past two tilts. Tyler Wade went 3-for-5 and hit his first big league homer. Giancarlo Stanton went 4-for-5 and drove in two runs.
The victory enabled the Yankees to split four games with the worst team in baseball and left them with a 4-3 road trip that finishes with four games against the AL Central-leading Indians in Cleveland starting Thursday night.
It also allowed the Yankees to remain 3 ½ games back of the AL East-leading Red Sox.
Four of Gray’s six innings were clean, and after stranding two in the second, he did the same in the sixth. Manny Machado, who possibly could join the Yankees before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, doubled with two outs and Caleb Joseph on first. That brought up Mark Trumbo and Gray responded by striking him out with a 2-2 curveball.
“It was good for our team and good for Sonny. He threw the ball good all game,’’ Bird said of the grand slam that kicked off the right-field foul pole and might be the biggest sign yet that the lefthanded hitting first baseman, who was supposed to be the Yankees’ No. 3 hitter, is ready to assume more responsibility in the lineup.
“He was the main factor tonight,’’ Aaron Boone said.
That is open to debate because Gray was a colossal story. If the Yankees had a bona fide candidate to replace Gray, who was 0-3 with a 12.23 ERA in his previous three starts and lasted 4 ¹/3 innings in the prior two, they likely would have deleted him from the rotation. Instead, Gray and pitching coach Larry Rothschild tinkered with a few things after the Blue Jays smoked the righty for five runs and six hits in two innings Friday night in Toronto.
“Tonight I thought he was carrying a little extra fastball, [it] had a lot of late life,’’ Orioles manager Buck Showalter said of Gray. “Breaking ball was better. You could tell he was a different guy out there tonight. Sonny Gray [is] too good a pitcher to stay where he was all year. Thought he looked strong.’’
Gray is done until after the AllStar break, so he has some time to drink in the excellent outing. Maybe it’s one start in a maddening year. Or perhaps it’s the first step up the mountain that doesn’t look as steep as it did when Gray threw his first pitch Wednesday night.