GRAY SO-SO IN LOSS
Colorado strikes out 15 times
NEW YORK» During the course of the long major-league season, there are going to be so-so games.
The Rockies experienced one of those Saturday night in a 5-3 loss to the Mets at Citi Field. They got, at best, a so-so start from Jon Gray, and a less than so-so performance from an offense that managed only seven hits, struck out 14 times and batted 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
During Colorado’s recent hot streak — it had won 10 of its past 12 games coming in — there were plenty of heroes and late-game theatrics. There was none of that Saturday, as the Rockies were held scoreless after the fourth inning.
Colorado had won seven of Gray’s past nine starts, with the right-hander going 5-1 with a 4.08 ERA over that stretch. But he was not sharp, giving up four runs on eight hits over 5M innings.
Colorado manager Bud Black described Gray’s performance as “variable.”
“He threw some really good pitches, and he threw some pitches he would really like to have back,” Black said. “It’s as simple as that. There were some at-bats where he really strung pitches together and some that really got away from him.”
Gray did strike out eight, leaving him with 602 for his career, the sixth-most in Rockies history. He got to the 600-K mark in 102 games, the second in franchise history behind Pedro Astacio (101), but Gray was not happy with his Saturday night performance.
“What eats me alive is when I make mistakes when I overthrow a pitch,” he said. “I threw a good slider, and then I try too hard to throw a better one, and they hit it. Things like that shouldn’t happen, but it did. Sometimes I try to do too much.”
Gray pitched scoreless fourth and fifth innings, striking out five in a row. Simplicity was the key.
“I kept it simple and didn’t try to do too much,” he said.
New York carved out a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning with four hits but just one run. The mini-rally began with a leadoff hit by Wilson Ramos off Gray that right fielder Charlie Blackmon misplayed into a double. But the slow-footed Ramos clogged up the basepaths and failed to score on Todd Frazier’s subsequent single. Ramos did come home on Amed Rosario’s double-play groundout, but reliever Jake Mcgee got Jeff Mcneil to fly out to deep right, stranding two.
Mcgee wasn’t as fortunate in the seventh inning, serving up a leadoff home run to Pete Alonso, whose ball carried over left fielder David Dahl’s outstretched glove. It was the rookie’s 21st home run of the season, leaving him five short of Darryl Strawberry’s franchise rookie record.
Colorado had an uneven night at the plate against Mets starter Steven Matz, who gave up three runs (two earned) on six hits, while striking out a season-high 10. Matz needed 120 pitches, but the Rockies never got the big hit to blow him off the mound.
The Rockies did get two excellent at-bats to plate two runs in the third inning, tying the game 2-2. Blackmon, playing for the first time since May 23, drilled an opposite-field single to left, scoring Tony Wolters. With his single, Blackmon extended his on-base streak to 19 games.
Nolan Arenado then hit an opposite-field single through a hole in the right side of the infield to score Blackmon.
Gray’s evening started off rocky. He gave up a hit and a walk in the first inning, but he emerged unscathed. Not so in the second. He plunked leadoff hitter Todd Frazier with a curveball, setting up No. 8 hitter Carlos Gomez’s two-run blast to center. Gomez came to the plate with a .182 average and just a single home run this season.
The Mets scored another run in the third inning when Gray’s control got out of whack. He walked two and gave up back-to-back singles to Ramos and Frazier.