The Coors Field Monster rose up and bit Jon Gray on the backside Monday night. It wasn’t so much the two home runs he allowed in the first inning. Or the nine hits. Or the five runs.
The monster — that thing that eats up so many Colorado pitchers like high-altitude candy — swallowed him whole and spit him out.
“I’ve pitched fine on the road,” Gray said. “I just can’t find that — whatever it is — to make an adjustment to pitch in this place.”
The touted, 23-year-old rookie right-hander lost a second consecutive game, a blowout loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. And he’s still searching for his first major-league victory.
But more important, Gray is still searching for control at Coors Field.
“I feel like my road numbers are good,” he said. “But here, they’re really bad. If I can just … I don’t know if it’s setting my sights on pitches or what, but I have to make a change fast. I have to pitch here.”
In fact, he’ll have to pitch half his games here.
In nine starts since his call-up in early August, Gray has pitched nearly the same number of innings in Denver and on the road. His splits are dramatic.
Gray has a 2.70 ERA on the road, 8.27 at home. He has allowed more than twice as many hits (36-16) and more than three times as many runs (20-6) in Colorado.
His best games — a two-hit, scoreless effort over five innings against the San Diego Padres and a one-hit, one-run game over six innings against the New York Mets — came on the road.
His worst outings — Monday’s five-run shellacking; a 10-hit bombardment against the Arizona Diamondbacks; and a seven-run showing over just 1 ⅔ innings against the Mets — were all Coors- born.
“It’s been difficult for me, especially when you come from a road start and you come here,” Gray said. “You can’t start pitches where you used to. You really have to shorten it out and expand.”
Gray on Tuesday talked about needing to reset his sights in off-day side sessions — in other words, he needs to figure out where to aim before his game days.
“There are a lot of things to learn,” Colorado manager Walt Weiss said. “His stuff plays anywhere. There’s no doubt about that. That’s not a concern. He just didn’t make pitches. And he got hurt when he didn’t.”
The list of pitchers who have succeeded over time at Coors Field is short. It includes Rockies ace Jorge De La Rosa, a lefty who uses a changeup to fool hitters.
“It’s not like this place is an excuse,” Gray said. “You have to know your environment. It’s on me. The other guy has to pitch here too. You have to beat the other guy mentally.”
Gray, though, has heard the stories. He knows all about the expansive Colorado outfield and the pitches that don’t break and the flyballs that carry.
But he grew comfortable pitching in a similar environment at Triple-A Albuquerque, he said. The difference there, though, is that most of the parks in the Pacific Coast League are similar and the road-to-home changes are less abrupt.
Even then, Coors Field is a unique beast. Gray’s ERA-minus (a metric that calculates and adjusts for screwy park factors, such as those in Denver) is well worse than the league average.
“It’s all mental, really,” Gray said. “It’s the way you have to pitch here. I know I’ll figure it out. It’s not like it’s something that will be tough forever. It’s just an adjustment.”
Nick Groke: ngroke@denverpost.com or @nickgroke
