The Colorado Rockies didn’t earn the win on Saturday, and Jon Gray allowed a home run in his second outing of the spring, but the Rockies’ young righthander still found some positives in his outing. Namely, that he’s settling in to his starting routine.
“The jitters and the nerves were gone,” Gray said about his second outing of Spring Training 2017. “I felt very comfortable with my warmup routine. Taking the field the first inning, anxiety didn’t get to me. I felt positive.”
Gray, who is entering his second full season in the Rockies’ rotation, allowed just one run on one hit Saturday – a home run to Mike Zunino with two outs in the bottom of the second. Zunino sent a 95 MHP fastball approximately 421 feet, but it was Gray’s off-speed pitches that he’s focused on improving.
“There’s still some things that need to be worked on,” Gray said. “My slider wasn’t really that great today. About half of them had the right movement, so that’s one thing I need to polish up. But the good news [is], the curveball and changeup were good today. I’m feeling what I need to on those pitches and I’m ready to take them a step further and get the full arsenal going.”
Gray added the curveball to his repertoire in 2016 but used it just 10 percent of the time compared to his slider, which he threw on nearly 26 percent of pitches according to FanGraphs.
The 25-year-old set a Rockies franchise record on Sept. 17, 2016 when he struck out 16 Padres (including four in the second inning) in a shutout victory. Gray finished the season with 10 wins and 185 strikeouts in his first season in the majors.
The home run to Zunino was the first run Gray allowed in Spring Training 2017. Through two starts he has allowed three hits in four innings, striking out three and walking none.
The Mariners went on to win Saturday’s meeting 4-3. Matt Carasiti took the loss, allowing one run on two hits in the ninth inning.
