DENVER -- Right-hander Jon Gray allowed just one hit in six scoreless innings in Sunday’s 4-1 victory over the Phillies -- the Rockies’ sixth win in seven games -- and it amounted to an afternoon of spring cleaning at Coors Field. Three innings seemed messy until Gray tidied up:

• After Garrett Hampson’s two errors in an odd fourth inning, Gray ended the threat, with Philadelphia's Cesar Hernandez giving Colorado an out when he walked off second base thinking Hampson had fielded a ball for a force play. Maikel Franco’s double put runners at second and third, but Gray attacked Roman Quinn with the thought of “the mistake is not going to come from me.” Gray forced a fly to center.

• After walking No. 8 hitter Andrew Knapp and pitcher Jerad Eickhoff with one out in the fifth, Gray swept up by deciding “to not get angry, settle down, take a breath and get back to what I’d been doing.” Andrew McCutchen's fly ball and a strikeout of Hernandez -- one of his five -- ended the situation. “We kicked that to the side pretty quick,” Gray said.

• Gray stomped on the mound when he didn’t get a strike from home-plate umpire Andy Fletcher on a 2-2 pitch to Franco and wound up walking him with two out. He regretted it, saying after seeing the video “it was probably more off [the plate] than on.“ But Gray broke Quinn’s bat for a soft fly to finish his day.

Ian Desmond’s RBI single and Tony Wolters’ two-run double in the bottom of the sixth off Eickhoff gave the Rockies a four-run lead.

Colorado's third win in the four-game series was another instance of Gray reversing last year’s issue of letting tight spots spin out of control.

With a 2.78 ERA through five starts, and having succeeded during pressure points more times than not, Gray is looking like the pitcher who earned Opening Day starts in 2017 and '18, and less like the one who didn’t rate a spot on last year’s postseason roster.

“There’s still a lot of room to grow,” Gray said. “I do feel a lot stronger, feel like my pitches have a lot of meaning.”

While the put-away pitch on all five strikeouts was the slider, Gray said it “was inconsistent, but we used it well." But his four-seam fastball, which he used 46 times according to Statcast, was dominant. It averaged 96.1 mph (for comparison, it averaged 94.7 last season) and earned him two whiffs, 10 called strikes, 10 foul balls and six balls in play.

“He didn’t overthrow the ball, it was coming out easy early in the game,” manager Bud Black said. “I don’t think his slider was as good as we’ve seen it, but here’s another day where Jon maybe didn’t have his best slider but he threw six scoreless innings. If we would’ve made a couple plays behind him, it probably would’ve saved him 20 pitches.”

During an offseason spent studying and learning his craft, Gray learned that if he stays “taller” -- meaning he doesn't collapse his plant (right) or landing (left) leg during the motion -- he has more command. With more command, he can “let it eat,” or throw harder.

As the charts below show, the cleaner mechanics this year mean a more consistent release point for Gray's four-seamer. The charts show his release point on the pitch last year (left), which was all over the place, compared to this year before Sunday.

But there was one hardship that Gray didn’t have to overcome on Sunday. He ended his National League-record streak of serving up at least one homer at 16 games.

How the day was won
• Charlie Blackmon continued his surge, going 3-for-4 with a triple in his second straight game. Starting with his two-run walk-off homer Friday night, Blackmon is 8-for-10 with two homers and two triples.

• Wolters, who couldn’t earn consistent playing time despite his solid catching last year because of his .170 average, had two hits and a walk to lift his batting average to .295. He is 7-for-14 in his past four games.

• Trevor Story’s two-out RBI single in the third inning extended his hit streak to 10 games, longest for a Rockies player this season.

• Wade Davis teetered in the ninth, giving up a run and facing Hernandez with two on and two down -- with Bryce Harper on deck. But with the count full, Davis forced a soft grounder to the mound.

• Gray’s work gave Colorado a Majors-leading five games in which the starter has pitched six or more innings and yielded two or fewer hits. The Rays, Athletics, Indians and Reds have four.