Cardinals’ Sonny Gray ‘trending the wrong way’ after second straight loss, command issues

Cardinals ace pitcher Sonny Gray showed no interest in silver linings or identifying stretches of his outing that he might build upon. He was too busy stewing over his poor performance and the infuriating results against the Colorado Rockies on Thursday night.

Gray, signed this offseason to anchor the Cardinals’ rotation, turned in his shortest start of the season. He allowed three runs in 4 2/3 innings and walked a season-high four batters in a 3-2 loss to the Rockies in the first game of a four-game series in front of an announced crowd of 33,332 at Busch Stadium.

Having lost back to back starts for the first time this season and the first time as a member of the Cardinals (29-32), Gray offered a pointed and blunt critique of his outing and recent starts.

“I pitched like (poop),” Gray said. “It’s a trend. I’m trending in the wrong direction. So I’ve got to come in and come up with a plan moving forward and get back on track.”

Five starts into the season, Gray had posted an ERA of 0.89 and struck out more than out seven times as many batters (38) as he’d walked (five). Opponents batted just .194 against him during that stretch.

With the exception of his first start of the season, coming off an IL stint, he’d pitched at least six innings per start.

However, the frustration Gray voiced wasn’t due to one isolated outing. He used the term “trending” in his assessment because he has now allowed seven runs in his last two starts and walked seven batters in 9 2/3 innings.

“Off the top of my head right now, I just feel like I’ve got to go back and start from the beginning,” Gray said. “Go get back to the basics. Force contact early. Strike one. Force guys to put the ball in play early. Get back through the middle of the plate early in the count. Not trying to be too fine early. Just get back to the middle.

“Everything seems to be better for me and more in my favor when I am getting ahead of guys early. The best way that I’ve done that in the past is just shoot right down the middle of the plate. I do feel like over the last, probably, couple weeks we’ve been going to more edges early.”

A pitch that looked to be in the strike zone created a speed bump in the third inning of Gray’s outing on Thursday.

Gray’s first walk came with one out with Jake Cave batting. Gray’s 2-2 pitch looked to catch the outer third and bottom third of the strike zone to the left-handed hitting Cave. Instead, home plate umpire Scott Barry called the pitch a ball.

The plate appearance continued, and Cave walked after an 11-pitch battle.

“I struck him out,” Gray said. “But at the same time, he battled after. I made a lot of good pitches and ended up walking him. I was okay with that.”

Cave went from first to third on a single by No. 9 hitter Michael Toglia, and he scored one batter later on an infield grounder. The Cardinals attempted to turn a double play on the grounder, but Charlie Blackmon beat out the throw to first base and Cave scored.

Gray had thrown 20 pitches through the first two innings. He threw 26 pitches in the third inning alone.

Despite that slowdown, Gray seemed to have gained a head full of steam after that. He struck out Ezequiel Tovar swinging to end that inning, and he struck out the side in order in the fourth.

“That game started off, he was pretty sharp,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Then he punches out those four in a row and you feel good about him kind of hitting another gear and getting going there.

“But when you look at the fastball command, he’s usually a little better with that fastball. He landed half the time. That was one of the differences in tonight’s game, higher walks than you’d expect for him.”

In his first seven starts of the season, Gray’s four-seam fastball landed in the zone anywhere between 63% of the time, as was the case in his start against the Oakland Athletics, to 75% of the time, such as his start against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 21. He had four starts with his four-seam landing at a clip of 70% or higher and two others at 67%.

Lately, Gray hasn’t had a close handle on that pitch. In recent starts against the Baltimore Orioles (50%), Chicago Cubs (30%), Philadelphia Phillies (35%) and Rockies (52%), the command of that pitch has dropped off. In each of those past four starts, he’s pitched fewer than six innings.

Thursday, Gray ran into trouble in the top of the fifth. He allowed two runs on a single, two wild pitches and three walks.

The only hit in the inning, a single by Brenton Doyle, led off the inning. Then Cave walked for the second time, with the help of a pitch timer violation that resulted in an automatic ball. A double steal put both runners in scoring position. Then Toglia’s grounder to first base drove in Doyle to give the Rockies a two-run edge.

Cave advanced to third on the grounder to first, and he scored on a wild pitch to make it a three-run advantage for the Rockies. Gray walked the last two batters he faced in the inning, Blackmon and Tovar. Left-hander Matthew Liberatore took over out of the bullpen.

“I remember going through this a little bit last year where I went through a four, five, six start stretch where I just continued to walk people,” Gray said. “The biggest jump from that was just a mindset swap to be aggressive early through the middle of the plate. I think that’s where I’ve got to get back to. Get back to the middle of the plate, and not trying to be too fine early in the counts. I think that could be a good starting point for me.”

The Cardinals bullpen held the line. Liberatore (1 1/3 innings), John King (1 1/3 innings) and Chris Roycroft (1 2/3 innings) provided scores relief. The Rockies (22-40) went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position in the game.

Offensively, the Cardinals had seven hits with just three coming in the first five inning against Rockies starting pitcher Cal Quantrill (5-4), despite the right-hander’s four walks.

The Cardinals left 10 men on base and went just 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

Rookie shortstop Masyn Winn (2 for 5) was the only Cardinals with a multi-hit game. Nolan Arenado tied his career high with three walks. Paul Goldschmidt (1 for 5) singled in the ninth inning and has reached base in 23 consecutive games.

The Cardinals scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning, just after the Rockies went to their bullpen.

Up until that point, the closest the Cardinals game to scoring a run was when Matt Carpenter had a solo home run robbed from him in the fifth inning when Toglia, the 6-foot-5 outfielder, jumped and reached over the right field wall snare the ball with his glove and pull it back onto the field.

In the sixth, the Cardinals smacked four hits (all singles) and benefited from a throwing error as they scored a pair of runs and made it a one-run game.

Gorman singled to start the inning and scored three batters later when Ivan Herrera hit a grounder and the Rockies failed to turn a double play. The errant throw from the shortstop, Tovar, allowed Gorman to score from second base. Michael Siani hit a two-out RBI single that scored Herrera.

In the seventh inning, Goldschmidt smashed a ball with an exit velocity of 106.8 mph that was caught on the warning track in center field. The next batter, Gorman, blasted a ball into left-center field at 100.7 mph off the bat, but it also got caught on the warning track.

In the eighth, Herrera lined a ball to left field.

Goldschmidt’s single was the only hit in the Cardinals’ half of the ninth.

“That’s the tough part, you look at this and you go man we only scored two, and it feels like we should have done a much better job against them today,” Marmol said. “But look at Goldy’s ball and it’s caught right on the wall. Gorman hits one caught on the wall. Herrera hits that ball against their lefty there at the end, scorches that. Nothing to show for it. They bring a homer back from Carp. It’s a different game when those four opportunities go our way.

“I do think our at-bats could have been better early, but we did take some good at-bats that didn’t go our way or have anything to show for.”