SPORTS STARTING PITCHERS HELP ROCKIES WIN 6 OF 7
ROCKIES 4, PHILLIES 1 Right-handed veteran key to stretch in which rotation dominates
For most of the Rockies’ history, they broke out of losing skids by blasting home runs and putting up crooked numbers.
Say hello to the 2019 Rockies. Over the past seven games — six victories — they received shutdown starts from German Marquez, Antonio Senzatela, Kyle Freeland and Jon Gray.
Gray, in fact, has delivered twice during the stretch, including Sunday when he pitched six innings of scoreless, one-hit baseball in the Rockies’ 4-1 victory over Philadelphia at Coors Field.
Colorado’s rotation is the prime reason the Rockies got hot after an eight-game losing streak and took three of four games from the Phillies to win the series.
“Those guys are really good,” said right fielder Charlie Blackmon, who continued to sizzle at the plate with a 3-for-4 performance that included a triple. “We didn’t do a whole lot of great stuff today … outside of Jon Gray dominating them. He just went out and shut them down, and he put us on his back and kind of won the game for us. That’s not uncommon as of late.”
Five times this season, Rockies starters have pitched six innings or more while allowing two hits or fewer. No other team in the majors can match that.
Gray, at least in the early going, looks like he has made a 180-degree turn from the pitcher who struggled for much of 2018 and was sent down to Triple-A to figure things out. All of the self-examination, soul-searching, weightlifting and confidence building Gray devoted himself to during the offseason is reaping rewards now.
“I just feel like I’m making really good pitches at crunchtime,” said Gray, who didn’t allow a home run, snapping a streak of 16 consecutive games in which he served up a longball, the longest such streak in National League history.
The meltdowns that often led to ugly starts last season were nowhere to be found Sunday. When things got tough, Gray remained calm, cool, deliberate and aggressive.
“I’m slowing down, making the pitch and not trying to do too much,” he said. “I’m calm, but I’m still in attack mode.”
In the fifth inning, for example, he issued back-to-back one-out walks, including a free pass to Phillies starter Jerard Eickhoff. But he escaped the jam by getting Andrew McCutchen to fly out to left and striking out Cesar Hernandez using a nasty slider.
“Jon was under control right from the get-go,” manager Bud Black said. “We saw some signs in spring training
that things were in a good place. I think these starts are indicative of where he is, physically and mentally.”
Gray’s fastball hummed Sunday, averaging 96.1 mph and topping out at 97.6 mph. Though Gray gave up four walks — an abnormally high number of free passes for him — the only hit he allowed was a two-out double to Maikel Franco in the fourth inning.
“Jon never gives in, and he made some pitches when he had to. He’s a warrior out there,” said catcher Tony Wolters, who’s on a 7-for-14 hot streak at the plate over his last four games.
Although Gray’s slider was not consistently sharp Sunday, he used it as his put-away pitch for all five of his strikeouts.
“I felt like my slider was inconsistent a little bit, but we used it well,” he said. “We put it in a good spot. It wasn’t nasty, necessarily, but we used it in good locations.”
Gray was backed up by timely hitting, an element that has often been missing this season. David Dahl, Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story rapped out consecutive singles off Eickhoff to give the Rockies a 1-0 lead in the third. Story’s single extended his hitting streak to a team-high 10 game.
A three-run sixth inning, sparked by Ian Desmond‘s RBI single to right and a two-run triple to right-center by Wolters, put the Rockies in command. Colorado, which entered the game with the worst average in the National League with runners in scoring position (.200), was much in the clutch Sunday, batting 4-for-12 in those situations.
The Phillies scored their only run in the ninth off of closer Wade Davis. He gave up a twoout double to Andrew Knapp and an RBI single to pinch hitter J.T. Realmuto. The Phillies had the tying runs on base, but Davis got Cesar Hernandez to ground out back to the mound to close out the game.
The Rockies continue to own the Phillies at Coors, going 9-2 against them here since 2017. The Rockies (9-13) open a three-game series against Washington (10-10) on Monday at Coors Field.