New opponent, familiar results for Gray, Nats

WASHINGTON -- In the traditional Beltway Series between the Nationals and Orioles, Josiah Gray faced the O’s on Tuesday night for the first time in his career. It was a learning experience of getting to know a new opponent while also continuing to understand more about himself in his third Major League season.

“I think there’s definitely a sort of advantage for both sides,” Gray said following the Nats’ 1-0 loss at Nationals Park. “For us, they can look at the numbers and they can look at the scouting report as much as they can. But until they get a few at-bats under their belts, they don’t really have an idea -- I guess, a concrete idea. So it works for both of us. They have to pick up scouting reports as the game goes on, and so do we.”

Gray pitched five-plus innings against Baltimore, allowing one run off four hits and four walks while striking out three. He began the game with a swift 11-pitch, 1-2-3 frame, and he finished the night at 98 pitches (58 strikes) after walking the first batter of the sixth inning.

The only Orioles batter Gray had previously pitched against was Adam Frazier, last season with the Mariners.

“You have to be a little bit more in-depth,” Gray said of facing a first-time opponent. “For [the O’s], they’ve been hitting the cover off the ball. So just trying to see what they’ve been hitting, what they haven’t been hitting. Just diving a little deeper, because you don’t know their tendencies as much as you might the Mets or Braves or any team in the division.”

A new opponent yielded similar results for the Nationals with Gray on the mound. Washington has posted zero runs in support of Gray in each of his four starts this season, and the club is scoreless in his past three outings.

“Josiah’s been pitching extremely well for us all year,” said first baseman Dominic Smith. “It’s a part of the game. You go through some tough luck like this when you do have good starters make some good pitches and pitch well, and it sucks. It sucks that we weren’t able to push across a couple of runs for him, especially how well he’s been pitching.”

While the offense looks to get in a rhythm, the 25-year-old Gray will continue growing and developing his approach. He is gaining confidence in his cutter, and he was encouraged to see soft contact and swings-and-misses on the pitch. Gray also broke down his season-high four walks as two “good at-bats on their part” and two “kind of uncompetitive pitches.”

Pitching deeper into games will be a key step for Gray this season. He has thrown a total of 21 2/3 frames across four starts. Manager Dave Martinez has observed a change in the right-hander’s mechanics more so than in his command. “He starts flying open [in later innings],” Martinez noted.

“Sometimes things speed up on a young player,” Martinez said. “He’s done a great job of understanding who he is and what he wants to do, but it does happen. So he’s got to understand moments like that, slow things down a little bit and just get to that next pitch.”

Gray already had reviewed game video to start thinking ahead on how he can utilize his legs more to help him go further in his next outing.

“I think up until that fifth inning, I was in the zone pretty well,” Gray said. “But [I] just have to continue to build up that endurance and build up that pitch count and just go out there and keep the team first and just give them a good start, a good opportunity to win.”

After Wednesday’s series finale, the Nationals and Orioles will face off again at the end of the season on Sept. 26-27 in Baltimore. If Gray’s turn comes up in that series, he will have real game experience to study, compared to a scouting report. And on Tuesday, he showed a glimpse of what the O’s can expect months down the road.

“He’s been very competitive,” said Martinez. “He makes pitches when he needs to. For the most part, he’s been keeping the ball down, and that’s something that we talked about all winter long with him, and he’s done a great job."