Gray manhandles Marlins through eight innings

In a season-opening rematch between the Rockies Jon Gray and the Marlins Sandy Alcantar, it would be a reversal of fortune for all involved, especially the Wolf of Blake Street.

On Friday night, the 3-0 victory was the exact opposite of the Colorado loss on March 31 in Miami. Instead of a six-inning, three run outing, Gray was electric, even after a 20 minute lightning delay in the third inning.

“We attacked from the get-go,” Gray said of the Rockies victory. “We didn’t walk people. We stayed in the zone with all our pitches. We made them hit the ball to get on. So, that was the best thing that worked tonight. And good defense behind us.”

Through eight innings of work, Gray struck out seven hitters and walked zero in his second career start of his career pitching eight or more shutout innings.

“This is definitely in the top ten, for sure,” hesaid of where this start ranks for him all-time. “Just going pitch-to-pitch, I wouldn’t say it was my nastiest stuff ever, but we used it really well tonight. I was really happy about that.”

The 27-year-old kept his pitch count low, throwing no more than 18 in his longest inning, finishing with an even 100, 70 of which were strikes. He commanded the strike zone as such and induced weak contact, recording 12-3 groundouts to flyouts.

The only inning of issue was the second, when Starlin Castro and Harold Ramirez knocked consecutive singles. Gray retired Lewis Brinson on three straight pitches and spent just two more on Bryan Holiday, who hit into an inning-ending double play.

From there, Gray was in command of his entire pitch mix, retiring 15 straight batters at one point; during this stretch, he struck out four and induced ten ground ball outs.

The hardest hit ball was a misplayed triple off the bat of Neil Walker in the seventh, the first three-bagger for a Marlins hitter outside the state of Florida this season. It was the lone extra-base hit against the Gray Wolf.

Colorado put two runs on the board in the bottom half of the second when Ryan McMahon came to the plate with Raimel Tapia aboard at first with one out. Hot off the heels of Wednesday’s pinch hit homer, RyMac added a 444 ft long ball on a slider.

Miami starting pitcher Alcantara was excellent in his Coors Field debut through seven frames. He struck out only two Colorado batters and helped with the speedy game time of 2:12, tied for the Rockies shortest affair this season.

Nolan Arenado gave the Rockies an insurance run in the eighth with a solo blast into the left field bleachers for his team-leading 28th home run.

With the three-run lead, Black went to closer Scott Oberg for the final outs in the ninth for his fifth save.

The game was Gray’s tenth this season without a surrendering a home run and since a streak of 16-straight games allowing a homer ending on April 21, he’s averaged less than one per start.