Ready and rested: Gray delivers 7 scoreless in return for stretch run

BALTIMORE -- During his designated rest period, which totaled nine days before he toed the rubber again for the Red Sox Saturday night at Camden Yards, Sonny Gray was asked if overall body fatigue was the reason he was essentially skipping a start amid one of the best seasons of his career.

“I think it's probably what you call a 36-year-old that has been pitching on five or six days' rest all year," Gray said on Aug. 31, "and just taking three days to fully recover, then line up the rest of September and the rest of the year, and get back into a routine and schedule."

Consider Gray rested, recovered and back in his routine -- not to mention dominant yet again.

The man who has turned into the ace of the Red Sox fired seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out seven in Boston’s 5-0 victory over the Orioles. It is back-to-back shutouts for the first time this season for interim manager Chad Tracy’s squad, which pulled out a 1-0 nailbiter on Friday.

Inspired by watching Ranger Suarez pitch seven strong innings in that one, and also mystified by Blaze Alexander chirping with the Red Sox during a brief benches-clearing encounter on Friday, Gray was thrilled by the results in his first start since Aug. 26.

“Good win after watching Ranger last night,” said Gray. “You come out and you want to match it. You want to do better. That's just how it is. We wanted to kind of bury these guys, especially after whatever that dude was trying to do last night.”

Gray (17-4, 2.69 ERA) had strong command of his always-diversified pitch mix, leading with his sinker (29 percent of his 92 offerings) while also mixing in plenty of curves, sweepers, four-seamers and cutters. The Sox have won 19 of Gray’s 26 starts this season.

“The layoff helped him,” said Tracy. “He looked good. Pitched deep. He was awesome. Second night in a row we got a starter out there through seven innings.”

Baltimore posed a big threat with the bases loaded and two outs and dangerous slugger Pete Alonso at the plate in the eighth inning, but Greg Weissert punched him out on a changeup.

Here were some other key takeaways on a night Boston won its third straight at Camden Yards this weekend with a chance to sweep behind lefty Payton Tolle on Sunday.

White reprises clutch role

It has been impressive to see the Red Sox win the first three games of this four-game set without invaluable center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela, who has a right quad injury.

A big reason they’ve been able to do so is Trade Deadline acquisition Eli White, who has filled in admirably. In Thursday’s opening win, it was White who doubled in the seventh inning to set up Isiah Kiner-Falefa for a game-tying single. And when Boston needed another big hit on Saturday, White was there to provide it, dunking a 69.1-mph single into left that delivered the first two runs of the game in the top of the sixth.

“That's a fun situation to come up in, bases loaded, two outs,” White said. “You just go back to thinking about being in those situations as a kid. I didn't kill that ball by any means, but I got just enough of it to get in the outfield and it worked out.”

IKF also getting back in swing

For all the talk about the returns from injury of Roman Anthony and Trevor Story, Kiner-Falefa also recently returned from a stress reaction in his left forearm and is giving Tracy his usual defensive versatility to go along with some offense. With Caleb Durbin getting a rare night off on Saturday, Kiner-Falefa slid into the lineup and played second base, while Nick Sogard moved to third.

When the Sox needed to pad their lead, it was Kiner-Falefa who came through with a two-out, two-run double to the opposite field in the seventh. And in the eighth, when the Sox needed a big play on defense, Kiner-Falefa made a diving stop of an Alexander hot shot to get the force at second.

Given how well Boston’s middle infield has played with a collection of solid role players in recent weeks, it was fair to wonder what role Kiner-Falefa would play in his return. Saturday was a reminder of his all-around skills.

“The one thing that’s being stressed now is everybody can eat,” Kiner-Falefa said. “There's enough food on the table for everybody. So I think that's why our team's having so much success.”

Story’s strong comeback

There were many skeptics outside the Red Sox’s clubhouse on how Story would return coming off a sports hernia surgery that kept him out for over three months.

Story is silencing the critics while helping his team win games. The veteran shortstop added three more hits on Saturday, including singles that set up scoring rallies in the sixth and seventh innings. Story has a hit in all six of his starts since he came back, and multi-hit games in four of the six.