Scorching Sonny wants to start new streak

CINCINNATI -- Sonny Gray’s impressive scoreless innings streak was broken, but his stretch of fantastic starts for the Reds was not.

Gray pitched brilliantly in a 3-2 victory over the Padres at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday. Over his six innings, he allowed one earned run on four hits with three walks and 10 strikeouts. Gray’s career-high scoreless streak of 23 consecutive innings ended with two outs in the sixth when Josh Naylor tattooed a 1-2 pitch for a home run to center field.

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“I was kind of stubborn there on the pitch. I think I shook five times to get to that fastball,” Gray said. “I think it deserved to get hit for a home run. It was a fun stretch, but just have to try to keep going.”

In his last 10 starts, Gray is 6-1 with a 1.58 ERA, and his overall record improved to 9-6 with a 2.92 ERA.

After giving up back-to-back singles in the first inning, Gray escaped with back-to-back strikeouts and went on to retire 15 of the next 16 batters. The blemish in that stretch was a four-pitch walk to Greg Garcia with one out in the third. Naylor then blistered a sharp grounder to first base that Statcast tracked with a 115.1 mph exit velocity. Filling in for the injured Joey Votto, Josh VanMeter alertly picked the ball and started an inning-ending double play, with Gray covering first base.

“I kind of surprised myself even on that one. That ball was crushed,” said VanMeter, who was 2-for-4 with two runs scored. “I had to go in and check how hard he hit that. It was a big play. I’m glad Sonny could get over and cover and finish the play.”

Over the fourth and fifth innings, Gray notched five straight strikeouts. He often led with his fastball, and although San Diego’s hitters squared up when they did make contact with it (106.1 mph average exit velocity), Gray got five swings-and-misses, nine called strikes and 10 foul balls off his heater.

Following Naylor’s homer, Gray found himself in a jam when Manny Machado hit a single and Eric Hosmer and Francisco Mejia reached on walks to load the bases in the sixth. Manager David Bell had Robert Stephenson warming up in the bullpen, but the skipper stuck with Gray.

“I kind of lost my fastball command there a little bit,” Gray said. “I kept pulling it, missing inside to lefties, then missing up. I was trying to, maybe, make the perfect pitch instead of just attacking.”

After he went to a 2-0 count to Manuel Margot, Gray’s 105th and final pitch of the night ended with a flyout to center fielder Nick Senzel.

“He was pretty gassed there. It wasn’t easy, but he got out of it,” Bell said. “He’s such a good pitcher. I wanted to give him every opportunity there to get out of it. He got a big out to get out of it.”

Gray and Monday’s starter Trevor Bauer (11 K’s) are the first Reds starters with back-to-back 10-or-more strikeout games since Gary Nolan and Jim Maloney in 1968. The Elias Sports Bureau noted there haven’t been three such games in a row for Cincinnati since at least 1900. That could change in Wednesday’s series finale when Luis Castillo gets the ball. Castillo has three 10-or-more strikeout games this season and six for his career.

“There’s talent, for sure. Guys who know how to pitch. It’s fun,” Gray said. “[The five starters] all try to bounce ideas off each other as much as possible and we try to be there for one another, watch each other and just be available for each other as much as possible. We want to get better. All of us do. It’s a fun, friendly competition, for sure.”

Gray’s scoreless streak is tied for the second-longest in the Major Leagues in 2019, and it was the longest for a Reds pitcher since reliever J.J. Hoover had 26 1/3 innings in 2013. The last Cincinnati starting pitcher to have such a stretch was in 1990, when Tom Browning also recorded 23 consecutive scoreless innings.

“Just wanted to not talk about it and see what happened until I gave up that homer there,” Gray said. “Then I talked about it a little bit. I was aware, for sure. I was just trying to keep going for as long as I possibly could and I guess try to start over now.”

Gray received the support he needed in the bottom of the sixth when VanMeter led off with a single and Freddy Galvis hit a high fly ball that carried just enough over the left-field fence for a two-run homer, giving him a new career high of 21 for the season. It also put Gray back in line to get the victory.

“He’s been incredible. I love watching him pitch,” VanMeter said. “He goes out there and competes and pitches with fire. It’s fun to watch. It kind of rubs off on everybody else and gets us going.”