He started slowly, but in his past 10 starts, Gray is 3-1 with a 3.48 ERA and 23 walks and 69 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings. It’s just now coming into effect what it feels like. “It was an awesome high”.
Advertisement
Gray said he wasn’t expecting the promotion especially on the Rockies’ current three-game homestand. The Rockies, on the way to their fifth straight losing season, are in rebuilding mode and Gray is considered one of the cornerstone pieces of the future.
Gray, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, toes the rubber for the Rockies (44-60) against left-hander Vidal Nuno at 7:40 pm Connecticut from Coors Field in Denver.
He struggled early this season with high pitch counts, which didn’t allow him to go deep into games.
Still, the Rockies weren’t ready to bring him up before Tuesday.
The Rockies kept Gray at Triple-A so he could improve his efficiency – Gray was too often throwing 100 pitches to get through five or six innings – and to gain consistency with his slider and changeup and work on some of the finer points of his position such as holding runners and fielding.
“Jon will handle it very well”, Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “That trumped the need of where we are at as a team”. He’s worth monitoring as a potential streaming option, and even though he’s at home for his debut he gets to face the anemic Mariners’ offense. “We feel that he is”.
Felix Hernandez pitched effectively into the seventh inning and Nelson Cruz homered in a fourth consecutive game to reach 30 for the season for the Mariners, who held on in the ninth for the win. He also singled to extend his hitting streak to 15 games, four shy of his career best. He bounced back nicely from a slow start, including a rare relief appearance in the season’s opening week, with a 6-3 record and 3.17 ERA since May 2.
“I think he’s certainly capable of giving us five innings”, manager Lloyd McClendon told MLB’s official website. On paper has the size and physical build to be a durable starter, but he’s dealt with occasional arm fatigue since entering pro ball.
Advertisement
Gray profiles as a number two starter when everything is right, though the Colorado environment will test him. It’s nothing foreign to him. “We don’t want to overwhelm him with that”.
