DENVER -- There are lessons to be learned in every start Josiah Gray makes early into his Major League career. His outing on Monday at Coors Field against the Rockies provided plenty of them for the 23-year-old right-hander.

Gray started by throwing five scoreless innings in the Nationals’ 5-4 win, but ended his outing allowing three runs on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts over 5 1/3 frames. Gray said toward the end, he was affected by the thin air, a result of his first time pitching in Denver. His record stands at 2-2 with a 5.85 ERA, with the possibility of making one more start before the end of the season.

“Early on, he threw the ball fantastic,” manager Dave Martinez said. “He had everything working. His breaking ball was good, fastball was located well. I think he just got tired at the end.”

Gray’s poise was tested two batters into the game after he lost control of a 92.2 mph fastball and struck Brendan Rodgers in the helmet. Rodgers fell to the ground, exited the game and later was cleared from concussion protocols. It was Gray’s second hit-by-pitch of his career, the first occurring on Aug. 18 against the Blue Jays (his fourth start with the Nationals).

“Obviously I didn’t intend for that to happen, so I hope he’s alright,” Gray said. “I just had to buckle down and make my pitches from there on out, not to be timid with the fastball, not be timid to go inside to batters and just bear down and know that I’ve got to pitch my game as well.”

A wild pitch followed before Gray locked in to end the first with a groundout and strikeout. Over the second through fifth frames, he recorded three strikeouts to one walk.

“Him and [catcher] Keibert [Ruiz], they kind of put it aside,” Martinez said. “It wasn’t good. He understands that and he felt bad. They kind of just said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to finish the game.’ He went out there and started throwing strikes. It’s good to see that he wasn’t rattled, that he went out there and finished doing what he had to do.”

Gray regained momentum until the sixth inning, when he ran into a Statcast-projected 424 feet of trouble in the outfield. He allowed a single and back-to-back walks to load the bases with no outs. After getting C.J. Cron to fly out to left field, Gray surrendered a double to Ryan McMahon, which traveled all the way to the center-field wall and cleared the bases. That marked the end of his evening, as he was relieved by Austin Voth after 90 pitches (52 strikes).

“I want to be pitching for years and years, so it won’t be the first time I’m throwing and baserunners are going to be on the bases like that,” Gray said. “It’s just part of pitching and it’s something you deal with, you take the punches as you can and go out there and make your pitches.”

This was not the first time Gray has experienced pitching through a jam with the Nationals. He entered Monday having thrown in four games with the bases loaded, which had resulted in two strikeouts, three hits and seven runs.

“It’s part of his growth,” Martinez said. “He’s got to understand how to get out of those situations. If he doesn’t do it, he’s never going to know what he is and what he can become.”

The Nationals have five games plus an off-day remaining in the regular season. That leaves the window open for Gray to make a final start this weekend at Nationals Park against the playoff-hungry Red Sox.

“I think it would be great,” Gray said. “Obviously, my career here is very young and I’m continuing to learn. But obviously we’re in a spot with that series to play spoiler and mess up things a little bit and do what we’ve got to do. If I do make a start next week, whenever that may be, that will be fun. I’ll go out there and give it my all and try to pitch just like any other game.”