Jon Gray pulled in second inning after being rocked by Diamondbacks

Mark Townsend
·Yahoo Sports Contributor
Rockies starter Jon Gray was roughed up by Arizona in his postseason debut. (AP)
Rockies starter Jon Gray was roughed up by Arizona in his postseason debut. (AP)

The trend of dismal starting pitching performances continued in Wednesday’s NL wild-card game.

Colorado Rockies starter Jon Gray survived the first inning, unlike Yankees starter Luis Severino on Tuesday, but he wasn’t long for the second. He was pulled after recording just four outs and was charged with four runs as Colorado fell behind the Arizona Diamondbacks early in a game they’d ultimately lose 11-8.

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On the other side, Arizona’s starter Zack Greinke was strong out of the gate, retiring the first six Rockies he faced. He would complete three scoreless inning before Colorado knocked him out with a four-run fourth-inning rally.

If you can believe it, Greinke’s outing qualified as the best among the four starters in the two wild-card games.

The biggest knock against Gray during his brief MLB career has been his inability to avoid big innings. He was buried under that avalanche again in the opening frame after allowing back-to-back singles by David Peralta and Ketel Marte. Then Paul Goldschmidt lowered the boom, snapping an 0-for-17 slump to end the regular season by launching a three-run home run.

Three batters later, Arizona had Gray against the ropes after getting one-out singles from Jake Lamb and A.J. Pollock, but Gray rebounded to strike out Daniel Descalso and Jeff Mathis to escape.

He wasn’t so lucky in the second. After retiring opposing pitcher Zack Greinke, Peralta singled again and Marte knocked him home with a ringing triple.

That marked the end for Gray, who exited his first career postseason with a 27.00 ERA. Reliever Scott Oberg limited the damage by retiring Goldschmidt and J.D. Martinez.

The seven hits Gray allowed were the most he’s allowed in a start since Aug. 11. He allowed more than seven hits just four times in 20 starts this season, so this was a night where he just didn’t have his best stuff. Even with the big inning stigma, he has not been prone to disastrous starts.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!