Gray fuels trip-ending shutout
ROCKIES 3, BRAVES 0 Right-hander pitches six scoreless innings and improves to 6-3
ATLANTA» Jon Gray wears 55 on his jersey because 22 was taken. The flame-throwing right-hander flipped his favorite number upside down when the Rockies called him up in 2015. With blurred eyes, Gray thinks it looks like the “super sport” emblem on a muscle car.
In the Rockies’ 3-0 victory over the Braves at SunTrust Park on Sunday afternoon, Gray helped turn around a short road trip. He breezed through six shutout innings, hanging on long enough for Mark Reynolds to blast a game-busting two-run homer in the sixth as Colorado won a road series for the first time in August.
“Our offense has been up and down all year,” Reynolds said. “The consistency has come from our starters.”
Gray struck out seven and gave up only five hits, confounding the Braves with two-strikeout innings in the first, third and fourth. The 25-year-old — what passes as a veteran in the Rockies’ rookie-heavy rotation — held Atlanta’s top four hitters to a total of two hits.
After blundering through an interleague series at Kansas City last week, the Rockies punched back in Georgia just in time for a nine-game homestand that starts Monday at Coors Field, with a critical three-game series against Arizona in the middle.
“He was turning it loose,” Colorado manager Bud Black said of Gray. “At times, it was good ol’ country Oklahoma hardball. I like that from our guys.”
Gray was never truly threatened, helped by backup catcher Tony Wolters, who twice threw out runners trying to steal second base. Wolters nabbed Freddie Freeman in the first inning and Dansby Swanson in the fifth. The Braves, trying to construct runs by playing smallball, failed.
Reynolds, wearing “Sheriff” on the back of his jersey, boomed a
first-pitch fastball from Atlanta reliever A.J. Minter into the seats beyond left-center field. Reynolds long ago earned the nickname “Sheriff of Swattingham” while averaging 33 home runs per season for five years running through 2012.
He has 28 homers this season, three shy of Colorado’s club lead held by Charlie Blackmon. Reynolds drove in Gerardo Parra, who twice led off with singles before scoring. Parra’s single to right in the second inning set up a 1-0 lead after Trevor Story doubled to deep center to bring him home.
“We’re ready to go home and break out the sticks again,” Reynolds said. “We’re in a good spot, in a (wild-card) playoff spot. Some teams are going to have to beat some teams to overtake us.”
The Rockies (71-59) failed to break the game open because of poor hitting with runners in scoring position, going 1-for-11.
That amplified the need for Gray to stand tall. After he forced Nick Markakis and Kurt Suzuki to fly out and strand two in the sixth inning, Black let him hit to lead off the seventh.
“Jon is a big-game pitcher,” Wolters said. “He’s going to treat this game like he does when he’s pitching in the playoffs.”
Gray (6-3) returned to the mound at 94 pitches to face Matt Adams, who looped an opposite-field single. Black called on his bullpen. Pat Neshek and Mike Dunn combined for two shutout innings and lefty Jake McGee set down the Braves quietly in a 1-2-3 ninth to post his third save.
“We kind of got this dog days of summer funk out of the way,” Reynolds said. “We can get into September, get some crisp air, hit a bunch of homers and let those boys go out and pitch.”