Eight pitches and six balls into his start Wednesday night, Cardinals right-hander Sonny Gray had two Pirates in scoring position, no outs, and that wasn’t even the worst bind he was in. He felt a real dilemma sticking to his word after spending several days telling his coach and his catcher this is exactly what they would not do.
Gray stepped to the back of the mound for a moment.
“Now is the time: You’re either going to put up or shut up,†Gray recalled telling himself. “You’re either going to live by the words that you said and the plan going forward or you’re going to shy away from it. You said if you’re going to get beat, then get beat. The way you approached the first two hitters of the game is not what you said you were going to do.
“Do what you say you’re going to do, or don’t say it.â€
He struck out the next two batters on six pitches.
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He struck out three on his next 10 pitches.
Faced with the exact start to the game that he wanted to avoid, Gray besieged the strike zone from there and put the finishing touches on one of his finer starts for the Cardinals. So far. The first two batters of the game reached base and then did not budge as Gray got three of his nine strikeouts. He retired a dozen consecutive Pirates and, for the first time since his starts began to shrivel over the past month, completed seven innings. Nolan Arenado and catcher Ivan Herrera each contributed three hits and an RBI to Gray’s excellence for a 4-2 victory against Pittsburgh at Busch Stadium.
It was Gray’s first quality start since May 3, his forceful and direct response to a trend that not only had his results adrift but his pitches drifting to the edges of the strike zone and out of it.
“It was a mentality shift through the week, to be honest,†said Gray (8-4). “It was a mentality shift and then the game starts and it wasn’t there. It was time to practice what you preach.â€
Coming out of his loss earlier in the home stand to Colorado, Gray bluntly assessed his pitching as “like (poop)†and suggested he felt that way over several starts, not just one. Since his assertive outing a month ago in Anaheim, Gray has seen his innings and his efficiency recede and the results follow. After walking four Rockies in a 4 2/3-inning dud, Gray spent the past few days prepping himself more than prepping for the Pirates.
He wrote a note in a journal he keeps:
“Pitch to win the game.â€
“When I pitch to win the game and not worry about anything, I’m just pitching to win the game,†he elaborated. “Good things tend to happen.â€
In conversations with catcher Herrera and pitching coach Dusty Blake, the trio also adjusted how Herrera would set up for Gray and present a target. Gray wanted an assist from the catch to focus on wedging pitches in the strike zone, so wherever the pitch was called to go, Herrera would start often with his mitt in the middle of the plate. Before the game, Gray, Blake and Herrera agreed that they would challenge the Pirates in the strike zone rather than tease them out of it and invite walks.
“Attack the middle of the plate,†Gray said. “That’s what Ivan and Dusty and we talked (about). Said, ‘Listen, if we’re going to get beat, we’re going to get beat.’ We’re not going to continue to do the same thing that we’ve been doing. We’re not going down like that.â€
And then Gray missed on four of the first five pitches to walk the Pirates’ leadoff hitter and former MVP Andrew McCutchen.
And then Gray fell behind 2-0 to the next batter.
Six of his first eight pitches were balls.
One of his two strikes Bryan Reynolds skipped for a double.
“He’s been struggling getting the ball in the zone a little bit, and after that he was just a different guy,†Herrera said. “He just started pitching like he used to. … He brings the whole Sonny. Same thing we talked about. Stay aggressive in the zone. We don’t want to walk guys. I know he hates it.â€
Herrera explained how he aided.
“I just sat in the middle,†he said. “Sit in the middle and let the ball move.â€
The next pitch after Reynolds’ double was an 88.7-mph cutter. He followed that with a curveball, and then ahead 0-2 he got to access his sweeping slider for the strikeout. The next batter, Oneil Cruz took a curve, fouled off a four-seam fastball, and found himself in an 0-2 count. He was vulnerable to one of the most effective pitches in the majors, Gray’s sweeping slider. Gray came one pitch shy of finishing the first inning with McCutchen and Reynolds watching as three teammates struck out on nine pitches.
Gray missed with an 0-2 sweeper to Ke’Bryan Hayes.
He returned to the sweeper at 1-2 to get Hayes swinging.
It was the only time to close that inning Gray threw the same pitch consecutively.
“When he’s got it going, oh my god, it’s tough,†Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I mean, you got to make sure not to miss the mistakes, and he did not make a lot of them. He just pitched really well.â€
Said Hayes: “We swung at some pitches that we didn’t want to swing at.â€
They just had less and less choice as Gray blitzed through the middle innings, using his fastball to get ahead, his cutter to keep the Pirates aware, and the sweeper to sink them. Gray got a dozen swings and misses total, seven on his sweeper. He landed six different pitches in the start, five of them at least 10 times. Not one of his curveballs or changeups was put in play. He threw 84 pitches and 24 of them were either called a strike or a swing and miss.
Forty of his first 57 pitches were strikes.
But that needs context.
Given that six of his first seven were balls, that means Grey went several innings force-feeding the strike zone with 39 of 50 pitches for strikes.
“We talked about it through (the week),†Gray said. “Let’s just stay through the middle of the plate. Be aggressive through the middle of the plate. Trust that the stuff is going to do this.â€
He zigged and zagged his hands in front of his face to illustrate.
“Very rarely throw a straight ball,†he continued. “It’s hard for me to throw it down the middle even if I’m trying. See where it goes from there.â€
Where it went was a three-run lead handed to the bullpen for the final six outs of the game and closer Ryan Helsley’s 22nd save.
Gray tied his season-high for innings in a start with seven and struck out at least nine for the fifth time in 12 starts. His wins (eight), strikeouts (91), and average against (.202) are all top seven in the National League, and his strikeout rate per nine innings (11.93) is second-highest among starters.
He stood at his locker late Wednesday with a hat that read “Darlin’†and offered all these details of his moment on the mound, his message in his journal, and his pledge to Blake and Herrera. While he explained how they all centered around fixating on the middle of the plate and letting the movement on his pitches work for him instead of against him, Gray’s youngest son sat in a chair in front of his dad. He was playing a baseball video game.
When he was pitching, of course, it was his dad on the pixelated mound.
Yes, virtual Sonny was pelting strikes just like real Sonny after his reboot.
“You kind of tell yourself this situation could go one of two ways: You continue to do the same thing, or you can flip it and go the other way,†Gray said. “I chose to go the other way with it. That’s who I am when I’m at my best. I would like to get back to there as much as possible.â€
Post-Dispatch baseball writer Daniel Guerrero and Rick Hummel Memorial Intern Brandon Haynes assisted with interviews for this article.