PHOENIX — The indelible impression left by the Rockies’ season-opening, 8-2 loss to the Diamondbacks on Thursday night was starter ‘s painful struggles. The right-hander has shown occasional flashes of being a true ace, but he’s clearly not there yet.
Returning to Chase Field where he got mugged in the wild-card playoff loss last season, Gray struggled from the get-go. Had it not been for a fifth-inning rescue by reliever , the game would have been complete blowout early, rather than late.
“There were a few pitches (left) up, but overall I just didn’t get ahead,” Gray said. “It’s tough to win that way; when you put yourself in a tough spot early.
“But nothing has changed. I’m still excited about the season. I know we are going to be a good team and I know the season is going to come together.”
Gray’s 30-pitch first inning was hauntingly familiar to his performance against the D-backs last October. That night, in the biggest game of his career, the Diamondbacks ripped Gray for four runs on seven hits. He recorded just four outs, the shortest start of his big-league career and the shortest postseason start in Rockies history.
Thursday, Arizona scored three runs off Gray in the first on back-to-back singles by David Peralta and A.J. Pollock, a walk by Paul Goldschmidt and a two-run double off the center-field wall by Jake Lamb. An infield grounder by Alex Avila plated the third run.
Manager Bud Black called the first inning, “a little bit of a back-breaker for us, ” but he didn’t think Gray looked overwhelmed by the big moment, as he did in the playoff loss.
“It was just not executing pitches,” Black said, who emphasized that too many of Gray’s pitches were left up in the zone, especially the first-pitch curveball that Lamb basted for a double. “I think going into tonight, I think (Gray) was in a better spot.”
Gray also said there was no connection between Thursday’s game and the playoff debacle.
“Completely different,” he said. “I just wish I had found my groove sooner.”
Gray, to his credit, recovered, blanking Arizona for the next three innings before he was rescued by Rusin. Gray’s four innings included three runs allowed on six hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
Rusin, the Rockies’ multi-use escape artist, inherited a bases-loaded, no-out jam from Gray but came away unscathed. Rusin struck out Lamb, got Ketel Marte to foul out to (who made a nice running catch), and induced Avila to ground out to second.
“You just have to come in and attack the zone, and that first-pitch strike is critical,” Rusin said. “My mentality is to come in and pound the zone and throw pitcher’s pitches.”
Arizona put the game away with a three-run sixth against Rusin and right-hander . A leadoff walk by Rusin and two doink hits, including a two-run floater to shallow left by Lamb off Oberg, were lucky, but effective. Rusin was charged with all three runs.
“That’s baseball,” Rusin said. “Sometimes they are going to hit rockets right at people. It’s just the luck of the game. I threw the pitch I wanted and they got weak contact. You can’t control anything after that.”
Colorado cut the lead to 3-2 in the sixth on a leadoff home run to left by off Arizona left-hander Patrick Corbin. Arenado has three opening-day homers, tying the franchise record.
The Rockies’ season started out with a blast from an unlikely source. Second baseman DJ LeMahiue, who tends to steer singles and doubles to right field, turned on Corbin’s 2-2, 94 mph fastball, sending it into the left-field seats in the first inning. LeMahieu has four career homers off Corbin, and he doesn’t have more than two against any other pitcher. It was just the 35th homer for LeMahieu in 2,913 career at-bats.
LeMahieu, however, killed a would-be rally in the fifth, grounding into an inning-ending double play and stranding Chris Iannetta, who led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on Gray’s perfect sacrifice bunt. LeMahieu hit into a double play 24 times last season, second most in the National League to Atlanta’s Matt Kemp, who had 25.
Colorado put two on base in the seventh on a single by Iannetta and a walk by , but the miniature rally fizzled when LeMahieu grounded into another double play.
Arizona tacked on two more runs in the seventh inning off reliever Mike Dunn.
And the Rockies — who struck out 12 times, led by three from — were down and out in the first game of 2018.
