Jon Gray falls flat as Rockies stumble to start second half

This is not how the Colorado Rockies wanted to start the second half of their 2017 season. A beat down at the hands of the New York Mets carries little in terms of indications of where the team is at right now. Rockies starter Jon Gray just didn’t have it and the middle relief poured gas on the fire while on the flip side Jacob deGrom dominated. The result? A 14-2 blowout that will surely have the Colorado faithful shaking their heads.

Gray actually looked to have the good stuff in the first inning but was undone by four bloop hits, two groundball, hits, and just two line drives in the second and third. He lost his command as well, issuing three walks and leaving too many 0-2 and 1-2 pitches over the heart of the plate.

Somewhat surprisingly, he was pulled before he had completed the third inning, leaving the bases loaded and giving way to Zac Rosscup who would allow each of those runners to cross the plate.

For Gray, the final line was ugly: 2.0 IP, 9 H, 8 ER, 2 BB, 1 K.

This was the worst start for Gray in a very long time and likely isn’t indicative of anything. Or, is it? With the Rockies right now, it’s hard to be sure of anything.

In the last few weeks, the Rockies’ offense has struggled against teams who aren’t the Chicago White Sox . A date with deGrom was always going to be a tall task, so the early massive deficit just exacerbated things.

Colorado did plate a run in the first — odd to think they held a brief lead in this game — on a two-out, two-strike single from Gerardo Parra, who continues to show the ability to deliver where so many other hitters in the lineup have failed of late. Their second run came in the sixth, also while Parra was at the plate, on a wild pitch that scored Charlie Blackmon who had doubled.

That was all they could get off of a very good pitcher having a great night. The Mets starter finished 11 strikeouts over eight innings, giving up just four hits, one earned run, and one walk. He was magnificent and while there will be plenty of fans who want to group this game in with the Rockies recent offensive woes, tonight’s result had everything to do with one starting pitcher being on his A-game and the other on his F-game. It really was that simple this time.

For an extra twist of the knife, Jose Reyes, who the Colorado Rockies are paying $22 million this season, went 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored despite a .215 average coming in.

The Mets tallied 18 hits total to score their 14 runs, the final volley coming in the form of a three-run shot for Michael Conforto in the seventh off of Jordan Lyles.

Colorado fell to 52-40 but still hold a seven game lead in the Wild Card.