KANSAS CITY -- While the Red Sox spent the first five innings of Monday night’s opener of a three-game series against the Royals continuing that prolonged search to find some offense, Sonny Gray, the ultimate craftsman, went to work.
The offense eventually did have a moment to savor, and Willson Contreras provided it with his second clutch, two-run homer in three days, this one a Statcast-projected 435-foot moonshot to left-center field that broke a scoreless tie with one out in the top of the sixth in Boston’s eventual 3-1 victory.
But it was the 36-year-old Gray who kept Kansas City at bay until that point with a plethora of nasty offerings in what was arguably the best of his eight starts in a Boston uniform.
Per usual, Gray used everything but the kitchen sink, throwing five pitch types (sweeper, cutter, four-seamer, curveball and sinker) at least 10 times, while also mixing in a couple of changeups for good measure. In his three starts since coming back from a right hamstring strain, Gray is 3-0 with a 1.06 ERA.
“The same as we've seen the last two outings,” said Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy. “Just in complete control, in and out, up, down, changing speeds. Had a nice front-door sinker, running it back on lefties, catching the inside corner. He was sensational.”
With complete command of his diverse mix, Gray (5-1, 2.93 ERA) recorded a season high of nine strikeouts over six-plus innings, while walking one and allowing one earned run on a night Boston’s offense scored three runs or fewer for the ninth straight contest for the first time since the final nine games of the 2012 season.
Nobody enjoyed the show more than Contreras, who teamed with Gray in St. Louis the last two years, before both were traded separately to Boston over the winter.
“I think he can be one of the best pitchers in baseball,” said Contreras. “He's been doing it for a long time. He’s a vet. He knows what he's doing, he knows the hitter, he knows the count, he knows everything. His preparation is off the charts, and that's what happens when you prepare yourself well and execute pitches.”
The Royals, who’ve seen plenty of Gray at his various stops on the Major League circuit, knew what they were up against.
“He spins the crap out of the ball, and he had the breaking ball working all night, running underneath the zone, and we were biting on it,” said Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. "He was able to throw the cutter in to lefties. He was backing up the sinker with two strikes. He just did a nice job. We didn’t do enough.”
For a while, the Red Sox were having a hard time doing enough against Seth Lugo. But with one on and one out in the sixth, the righty doubled up on sinkers in an effort to get an inning-ending double play off the bat of Contreras. After the first one didn’t come close to being a strike, Lugo hung the second in the lower-middle portion and Contreras mauled it for his team-leading, 10th homer of the season.
“It feels good, but it feels good for the team, actually,” said Contreras. “I think it’s more important for the team. We're trying to work hard, as hard as we can on the offensive side, and when a game like this happens, everybody feels good.”
Gray has seen it before -- numerous times -- from the man he affectionately called “Mi Hermano” after his start last week in Boston.
“Willson's been one of the best hitters in this league for about 10 years,” Gray said. “People might not realize that, but just look it up. He has been. And I have all the confidence in the world in him. He's one of my closest friends that I've made in baseball. I respect the crap out of him, and he's a really, really good player.”
The way Boston’s pitching has been going of late, one clutch hit -- particularly a multi-run homer -- has often been enough to bring the team to victory.
At a time ace Garrett Crochet is on the 15-day injured list as he recovers from left shoulder inflammation, Gray, Ranger Suarez, Payton Tolle and Connelly Early continue to provide stellar work from the hill.
Though the Sox are 8-8 in May, it is mostly due to the pitching staff allowing two earned runs or less in 12 of the 16 games that has allowed them to break even this month.
The near nightly display of dominance from the mound is proof of how dangerous the Red Sox could be with an improvement by the offense.
“Knowing that we've gone through some things, and we're still working on putting runs on the board, to see our pitchers continue to go out there and do what they're doing is really outstanding,” Tracy said.