Friday was a tough day for Rockies No. 1 starter Jon Gray. The hard-throwing right-hander was roughed up to the tune of five earned runs in just 2.2 innings pitched against the San Francisco Giants at Salt River Fields. Gray allowed seven consecutive hits in the third inning before leaving the game with a sore left foot. Still, despite the performance and the injury, manager Bud Black is optimistic.
“We’re going to have our doctors look at him,” Black said postgame of Gray’s injury, “but, you know, initially we feel pretty good about it … In the dugout, [he said] he seems to think he’s going to be fine. It just, it bothered him on that move to first base when he sort of got on his tippie toes.”
The left foot injury is one Gray has been dealing with since his last start.
“It got much better,” Black continued, “from his last start to this start and it’s just he re-aggravated it. So, instead of trying to push through this we took him out of the game.”
Gray fared much better in that last start, allowing only one run and striking out seven over five innings against Oakland on Sunday. Black doesn’t expect any changes to his ace’s progression towards the start of the regular season. He fully expects Gray will make his next start on time.
“He’ll have his regular rest in between [starts], and you know, we’ll have the doctors look at it a little more closely. But all indications are that he’s going to be fine,” Black said.
That’s welcome news for Rockies fans. Colorado already lost starter Chad Bettis (cancer treatment) indefinitely for the start of the season and one of the top candidates for the back-end of the rotation, Jeff Hoffman, was recently sent down to Triple-A from the big league camp.
Colorado opens the regular season Monday, April 3 in Milwaukee. The home opener is Friday, April 7 against the Dodgers. Gray is expected to start for Colorado on Opening Day.
