Rockies Manager Bud Black couldn’t really fault Jon Gray on Tuesday night, despite the 3-2 loss Colorado suffered at the hands of the Kansas City Royals. On an night when the Rockies mustered just two total hits on offense, it was two hard-hit balls by Kansas City in the fourth inning that proved to be the difference in the game.
“Hard contact there in the fourth with Cabrera. That ball got down there in that corner,” Black said of a Melky Cabrera one-out triple down the right-field line. The ball was well struck, but Cabrera also got a little help from the ballpark.
“From my vantage, it looked like it stopped going to CarGo. It was weird. It looked like CarGo was getting ready to hold him to a double and then it got hung up somewhere, which was a bad break for us. That ball was hit hard,” Black said.
“Obviously Hosmer’s 0-2 ball off the plate was not,” Black continued about the Baltimore chop to Nolan Arenado that scored Cabrera, “and then Perez hit the ball hard to right center. So they didn’t hit the ball hard off Jon.”
The other run Gray allowed came in the first inning. It was charged as an unearned run as Whit Merrifield scored on a passed ball. He led off the game with a single and stole second, then moved up a base on a ground out.
Black said recently that he’s not yet ready to crown Jon Gray an ‘ace’ – the kind of pitcher who would be a true No. 1 or No. 2 for any team in the league – but Black is happy with the growth he’s seeing in the 25-year-old.
“Jon hung in there, pitched into the seventh inning, which we like to see. We want to see Jon continue to grow as a pitcher and give us those types of outings where he’s throwing pitches in the seventh and hopefully in the future throwing pitches in the eighth.”
The Rockies had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth against Kelvin Herrera in what was an odd finish to the game. After giving up a two-out triple to Jonathan Lucroy, Herrera pitched around Carlos Gonzalez, then walked Gerardo Parra to load the bases. He threw two balls to Pat Valaika before Ned Yost pulled the closer and brought in Scott Alexander. Alexander threw only two pitches, a strike looking and a groundout to short, to earn the save.
“Hard-fought game,” Black said of the ninth. “We had a chance at the end. We didn’t get a lot going all night, obviously, with only a couple hits and a few walks. But we had the go-ahead run at second base there in the ninth. Our guys fought back hard to get in it against a great closer. Just didn’t get the knock at the end.”