CINCINNATI: Scanning Sonny Gray’s pitching line for the Reds against the Marlins on Friday would seem at first glance as if it were an easy night for the right-hander. Gray gave up just one hit in seven innings without a score and had four baserunners all night during a 5-3 win at Great American Ball Park.
“Maybe as good as he’s been all year,” said Reds coach David Bell, whose club entered the night a game behind the Padres for second place in the National League Wild League. “I was in full command.”
Gray was aggressive with first-throw attacks on 20 of his 25 batters. He was also efficient, needing just 26 pitches through his three perfect innings. He retired his first ten batsmen in a row.
But Gray had to dig deep during his rugged inning and escaped a base-laden jam that could have changed the entire game at the top of the quarter.
Gray put his curve ball on the backburner for this outing and leaned on his other throws. This included a slider that he left in his more recent beginnings as he continued to work on it. Against Miami, he threw the slider 21 times. According to Statcast, he got 12 changes and eight failures.
This slider would be your friend in the fourth fundamental entry.
“Sonny, in the best way possible, you don’t know what you’re going to get overnight when it comes to throwing up what kind of breaking ball you’re going to have,” catcher Tucker Barnhart said. “Tonight, there was a clear effort to throw a little more real slider / cutter control and try to induce weak contact. He did a great job. It’s been amazing.”
While Cincinnati took a quick 2-0 lead on the first inning of a Nick Castellanos RBI single and the sacrifice of Kyle Farmer, Gray faced off against the Miami Hitters. If it hadn’t been for the field line to the right of Jazz Chisholm Jr. with an exit in the fourth inning, Gray could have flirted closer to a no-hit. Although things almost went sideways when he walked the next two batters.
Gray shrank and got Brian Anderson to hit a first cutter in midfield. Chisholm was prepared to prepare for home run, but centered Tyler Naquin threw a perfect shot on the plate and forced the runner to hold on.
In a three-throw sequence, Gray attacked Lewis Brinson with a 81 mph slider to escape the jam. But it was Anderson’s release that made Gray very happy.
“This is like a new tone, which I’ve been working on and launched with conviction and got a shallow fly,” Gray said. “And then the Brinson at-bat, I think he went back to the old slider after that.
“It definitely gave me a little kick because, let’s say a shovel, they were the kind of entries and they were the kind of things that happened to me the last two, three exits, where it’s just gone wrong.. the fourth, the fifth entry, and I walked away from myself. “
Gray finished the game withdrawing 11 of his last 12 batters, with only one interference call against Barnhart with two starts in the sixth inning putting another man on base. He finished with two runs and five strikeouts while throwing 87 pitches before Bell went to the bullring.
“It’s just based on where you are, the game. Seven entries is an exceptional start,” Bell said. “We have a long way to go. We want to keep it strong and able to build that start here.”
Gray hadn’t reached all seven innings in each of his previous six starts since July 7, and was 2-2 with a 7.22 ERA in those games. I needed a night like Friday.
“It meant something to go back and have a pretty clean seventh, with the potential next time or this time to prepare to go out for an eighth or something,” Gray said. “Am I satisfied? Absolutely not.”
Cincinnati increased their lead to 5-0 in the fifth inning. Naquin hit right for his 16th game of the season, a solo shot against Elieser Hernandez.
The Marlins pitcher sank his next hitter, Castellanos, before a peculiar feat. In the next bid, Joey Votto crushed a two-run homer to right center. It was the fourth time in a row that Votto scored at home after Castellanos was hit by a throw.
“I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with it,” Bell said. “I don’t want to make it too big a deal. It’s a close team. The guys are very close. I think it’s a good way to respond.”
It was Votto’s 28th game of the season and the 17th major league leader in 33 games since the All-Star break.
Chisholm not only broke a perfect game, but frustrated a combined closing bid. In the eighth inning against the Reds, Lucas Sims threw a three-run goal into the right field. Mychal Givens made a ninth goalless draw for his fourth save.
“Sonny keeps a good pace, and he just goes out in the strike zone and goes out,” Naquin said. “It’s nice to be able to give him a little pillow, because he’ll just go faster and get better as the game progresses.”