This was a gameš the Yankees got Sonny Gray to win.
Matching up against a reeling Baltimore team and struggling right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, Gray instead came up with his worst performance as a Yankee, giving up five runs in just fouąµ²r innings in a 6-4 loss in The Bronx on Sunday.
āI donāt think I threw enough strikes and Iš couldnāt get the ball down,āā Gray said following his shortest start oą·“f the season. āThe first three innings, I had two outs and couldnāt finish, and the same thing happened in the fourth. I didnāt give up the big hit until the fourth.āā
That big hit was a three-run homer by Tim āBeckham.
With one on and twoā out, Gray allowed a sinļ·½gle to Caleb Joseph and then a wild pitch moved both runners up a base.
Beckham came up next and drilled a three-run shot to left-center off a hanging slider to give Baltimš„ore a 5-1 lead.
āI thought my stuff wasnāt as sharp from the get-go, and it caught up to me in the fourth,āā Gray said. āThat was tough to see and tough to go through.āā
Joe Girardi removed him after the inning, since it had taken Grašøy 80 pitches to get through four innings.
It was a stark difference from his previous outing, when Gray held the Rays to two runs over eight innings — although that game ended in a loss, as well.
In Grayās nine outings since joining the Yankees from Oakland, the Yankees are 3-6. Much of that is due to poor run support, since the Yankees Ü«entered Sunday having scored either one or no runs for the right-hander in five of his eight starts.
This time, though, the issue was primarily Gray.
āSome days š¤Ŗare gonna be better than others,āā Girardi said. āHe got some ground balls that were just out of reach of some of our infielders and then the breaking ball he hung to Beckham. ā¦ He didnāt seem to haveź§ his normal command.ā