Walt Weiss rarely walks to the mound for a pitching pep talk. He only makes that trip to give the hook. If the Rockies manager bothered to visit, it means the pitcher’s night is done.
But there was a conversation at the rubber Friday night at Coors Field. Weiss and right-hander Jon Gray talked over their fates like a city council meeting. They whispered and nodded. Gray had given up just three hits and struck out eight when the visiting Philadelphia Phillies put runners at the corners in the seventh inning. His mix of sliders and slurves, 98-mph fastballs and speed-bump curveballs, was overpowering. He was winning.
“I had already made my decision. I was just buying a little time,” Weiss said. He pulled his pitcher.
Gray walked away with the game on the line. If his start was a sentence, he left after the comma. And the Phillies filled in the blanks, scoring four after Gray’s exit, including a game-busting, three-run, pinch-hit home run from Tommy Joseph that gave Philadelphia a 5-3 victory in front of 42,335 fireworks-watching fans in LoDo.
“I don’t want to leavey Johnny out there to take a loss,” Weiss said.
There’s a nasty, little virus lingering with the Rockies. Gray pitched 13 starts before earning his first career victory — the longest string of winless starts to open a career in club history. He is so often the victim of circumstances out of his control. The Rockies are just 7-17 when he pitches. In his past six starts, the team behind him won just once.
So there was a hold sign early Friday, even after Gray struck out Odubel Herrera and Peter Bourjos to open the game, even after he struck out two more in the fourth and kept the Phillies scoreless through six. Gray’s 95 strikeouts are by far the most among Rockies this season. And he has walked just 29. His K-to-walk ratio trails only rookie Tyler Anderson, who is also winless with a third as many starts.
“I stayed locked in. I realize how important it is to get that deep into a game and get all those outs,” Gray said. “I got a little wild late, but I felt like I pitched through it.”
After Carlos Gonzalez yanked a hard-hit double to right field in the third to score Charlie Blackmon, then scored in the fifth on Trevor Story’s double to right-center, the Rockies had a 2-0 lead on a Phillies team that has the youngest roster in the National League. The Phils’ inexperience showed Thursday in an 11-2 trouncing as the road-weary Rox broke out after a difficult West Coast road trip.
On Friday, the Rockies fell back into a rut. Story added an RBI single to right in the seventh that scored DJ LeMahieu. Gonzalez and Blackmon each finished 3-for-5. But Colorado left 11 runners on base. They were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Story flied out with men at second and third in the third. And Mark Reynolds grounded out to shortstop with the bases loaded in the seventh. And with Blackmon at second in the eighth, Phillies left fielder Tyler Goeddel dove face-first for a game-saving catch on LeMahieu’s fly.
After Gray was pulled in the seventh, on just 94 pitches but with a walk and a wild pitch late, the Rockies still held hope with a two-run lead. But Cesar Hernandez singled off lefty reliever Jake McGee to score Cameron Rupp, the first inherited runner to score off McGee this season. Velazquez, the very next batter, slammed a shot to left field to parade a trio of Phillies to the plate.
“I saw some effort start to creep into his delivery,” Weiss said of Gray’s final inning. “And I like the matchups with McGee.”
Said McGee: “I hung a slider to him. I should have stuck to my best pitch, a fastball. I was mad about it. It lost us the game.”
In an ugly ninth, the Phillies scored again after a leadoff walk from Colorado closer Carlos Estevez, a single, an error on a pickoff at third that scored a run, then a second error that put another runner on.
The Rockies are now 0-42 when trailing after the seventh inning. Gray kept his mark at 5-4 and lowered his ERA to 4.67. But he has just one win in five weeks.
“It’s too bad,” Weiss said “Johnny did a really nice job. Tough one to lose late.”
