MINNEAPOLIS — He called for this opportunity late in spring, suggesting he didn’t like how Twins pitchers never carried the team deep enough into games last season. When provided the chance on Friday afternoon, Sonny Gray responded with another inning of brilliance.
And then he punched the air.
In what teammates say was a rare display of emotion, Gray responded to a standing ovation from a sellout crowd at Target Field by pounding his glove and throwing his right arm into the air. Gray gestured wildly as he walked off the field after seven dominant innings against the defending champion Houston Astros. Working with a nasty array of pitches, Gray struck out a career-high 13 batters, his performance key to a 3-2 Twins victory in 10 innings in the home opener.
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“I didn’t have to lobby much,” Gray said. “They said, ‘How do you feel?’ I said, ‘Great.’ They said, ’10 out of 10?’ I said, ’10 out of 10.’ And that was the end of it. … We want to go out there, we want to compete, we want to keep going, and I was thankful for the opportunity and just could keep building off of that. You always want to go back out. So, yeah, no — didn’t have to lobby too much, and it fired me up. It definitely fired me up.”
Through seven games, Gray and his rotation mates are firing on all cylinders, the driving force behind a 5-2 start for the Twins. The team’s rotation boasts a 1.12 ERA, tops in the majors.
The collective performance is probably even better than what Twins manager Rocco Baldelli envisioned early in camp when he said the team’s rotation would be a strength. Dogged by fans for not allowing starting pitchers to face a lineup the third time through a season ago, Baldelli suggested a 2023 group spearheaded by Gray and newly acquired Pablo López had the makeup to pitch deeper into games than its predecessor.
Even though his bullpen was ready, Baldelli stuck with Gray after the Twins tied the score 1-1 on a two-out wild pitch in the sixth inning. Gray responded with an 11-pitch frame, a pair of lineouts sandwiched around the pitcher’s 13th strikeout on a called third strike to Chas McCormick.
Based on the elite stuff Gray had — Astros hitters swung and missed at 16 pitches and took 20 more for called strikes — and a low pitch count, Baldelli said the decision to send his veteran back out was easy.
“I don’t really care about the narratives,” Baldelli said. “I really don’t. I care about winning games, and I care about putting our guys in the best spot that I can, and (pitching coach) Pete Maki can, to go out there and win. When you have guys going out there and throwing the hell out of the ball and looking strong at the end of their outings, commanding all of their pitches throughout, you wanna watch them keep pitching. That fires me up, watching these guys go out there in the fifth, sixth, seventh inning, throwing the ball like that. … When you have guys making the decision for you, you just go with what you know is right, because what they’re showing you is very impressive. All of our guys, they’re all throwing the ball really well right now.”
𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝑫𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 ☀️
Career-high 13 strikeouts for Sonny Gray! #MNTwins | #MLB pic.twitter.com/zETnrGtkga
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) April 7, 2023
Through the first week, Twins starters are averaging a major-league-best 5.76 innings per outing. Bolstered by the trade for López and the return of Kenta Maeda, the current rotation is better suited to pitch deeper into games.
While Tyler Mahle’s career OPS against the third time through is .818, he’s been outstanding the past two seasons. Gray and López are dominant facing opponents a third time, and Joe Ryan demonstrated late in his rookie season he’s up to the task. Even Maeda’s .784 OPS against the third time through is solid compared to peers around the league.
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By comparison, the 2022 team featured Chris Archer, who struggled once he reached 75 pitches, and Dylan Bundy, who has never fared well deeper in games. Gray also wasn’t at his best in 2022, resuming his throwing program only four days before the owner’s lockout ended, which left him playing catch-up all season long.
Perhaps bolstered by how good he feels now, Gray, who threw an estimated 15 bullpens before he arrived at camp in February, called for the rotation to be afforded the chance to pitch deeper into games this season. Asked about the rotation’s potential during a March 26 postgame media session, Gray quickly segued into a topic he’s clearly thought about.
“You can see (the potential),” Gray said in Fort Myers, Fla. “We’ll see how it all shakes out. I do know that everybody wants it, especially after last year. I don’t think we’re interested in going four innings and being happy. I feel like we had a group last year that was pretty content with going four innings, and going four innings and five innings is considered a good start. I disagreed with that then. I disagree with that now, but I feel like just the guys that we have aren’t content with it either, which is what you want, especially as a rotation. You want to build off each other. You want to build off of each other. You don’t want to go out there and throw four innings and walk away happy about it.”
They’re not doing cartwheels about the way they’ve hit early this season, but with the rotation carrying them early, the Twins don’t have to stress about their offense, either. Not yet at least.
But if it weren’t for Bryan Abreu’s wild pitch allowing Donovan Solano to score the tying run in the sixth, the Twins may have wasted Gray’s dazzling performance.
Twins hitters created myriad opportunities against Houston starter José Urquidy, but didn’t cash any of them in until Abreu uncorked a wild pitch. Shortstop Carlos Correa stranded runners in scoring position in the third, fifth and 10th innings and erased a leadoff single with a 6-3 double play in the seventh, part of an 0-for-5 day.
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Until extra innings, the Twins were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Trailing by a run, the Twins couldn’t drive in Michael A. Taylor after he led off the fifth inning with a double as Byron Buxton grounded out, Correa struck out and Trevor Larnach hit a comebacker.
Yet Gray kept them afloat. He had Astros hitters guessing most of the day as he relied on a nasty curveball and a pinpoint fastball. Gray struck out a batter in every inning, had three strikeouts in both the fourth and fifth innings and two apiece in the first and second innings.
The only run Gray allowed was on a two-out RBI single to Alex Bregman in the third inning. Aside from that, the Astros couldn’t touch him.
“He’s always really good,” Bregman said. “He’s really tough. He has four pitches that he puts on the edges. He can expand when he wants to as well. He’s a front-line starter. We didn’t do enough off him (Friday) to win.”
The Twins did just enough to come out ahead.
Trailing by a run after Houston scored in the top of the 10th on a Mauricio Dubón single off Jorge López, the Twins put together a winning rally against reliever Ryne Stanek. After a wild pitch allowed Buxton, the automatic runner, to advance to third, Larnach walked. Jose Miranda followed with a game-tying RBI single to right and both runners advanced on another Stanek wild pitch. Stanek intentionally walked Solano to load the bases and Kyle Farmer singled past a drawn-in infield for the game winner.
A teammate of Gray’s for three seasons in Cincinnati, Farmer admitted he was a little taken aback by the rare display of emotion by his close friend.
“(Friday) was probably the best I’ve seen (Gray) in a long time,” Farmer said. “He dominated. All of his pitches were working. He kept the hitters off balance. … He threw his hands in the air. He doesn’t normally do that. It was cool to see Sonny show a little emotion.”
(Top photo of Sonny Gray: Matt Blewett / USA Today)
Dan Hayes is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Minnesota Twins. Dan joined The Athletic after 5 1/2 years at NBC Sports Chicago and eight years at The North County Times, where he covered the Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres, four World Series, the NBA Finals, NHL Stanley Cup Final, NASCAR, UFC, Little League World Series, PGA and the NFL. Follow Dan on Twitter @DanHayesMLB
