Reds Errors Lack Of Control Makes A Gloomy Day For Sonny Gray

Sonny Gray had little trouble throwing strikes in the Arizona in the warm air.  On a 35 degree day in his Reds' debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Gray had all kinds of trouble throwing them, leading to a 5-0 loss to the Pirates.

/Gray walked four and dropped a feed from Joey Votto for an error, leading to three Pirates runs.

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"From my vantage point it looked like Sonny was just missing," said David Bell after his first career loss as manager.  "He has to work a little bit harder than you'd like to see him have to work.   He wasn't missing by much but I think that extra work because he was just missing caught up to him.  He is going to bounce back.  He batted and competed.  He is going to have better days."

Starling Marte reached on the error in the first inning.  Marte stole second and scored on a single by Josh Bell.  Melky Cabrera beat the shift with a single in the second inning.  Erik Gonzalez slow roller to Jose Iglesias put Cabrera in scoring position.  Pitcher Trevor Williams singled past Votto to score Cabrera for the second run.  Gray lost control in the third.  Francisco Cervelli singled with one out. Gray walked Jung Ho Kang, Gonzalez and Williams to force in a run.

"I didn't throw strikes from the get go.  I just didn't throw enough strikes," Gray said.  "It was an opportunity and I didn't throw strikes.  When you have the guys on the field for 20-25 minutes you're not going to get much offense either.  This spring I threw 10 innings and didn't walk a batter.  Today I walked four and hit a batter in 2 2/3.  I was just missing and didn't make adjustments.  It wasn't what I expected of myself."

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Williams at the same time was hand cuffing the Reds' batters.  Tucker Barnhart dumped a single to right in the third. Yasiel Puig walked in the fourth.  Iglesias got an infield single in the sixth.  It wasn't until Votto single with two outs in the sixth that the Reds got a runner past first base.  Williams struck out Puig with runners on first and third to end the sixth.

After the All-Star break last season, Williams was one of the best pitchers statistically in baseball for the second half.  He had a 1.38 ERA to close the season.

Michael Lorenzen, Wandy Peralta and Robert Stephenson pitched four scoreless innings to keep the Reds in the game.

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"They all pitched great and kept us in the game," Gray said.

The Pirates added a run against Stephenson in the eighth.  Adam Frazier's bunt singled drew a bad throw from Eugenio Suarez.  Marte followed with a run scoring double.  Stephenson's attempted pick off throw was closer to Schebler in center than the second base bag.  That brought Marte to third.  A groundout to second base, brought in the Pirates' fifth run of the game.  The Reds accumulated four errors for the game.
"You don't want to make four errors," Bell said.  "I got blocked out I couldn't see how the ball popped out of Sonny's glove.  Scheb was trying to make an aggressive play,  Suarez on the bunt.  Robert was trying to keep the runner close.  The ball just slipped out of his hand."

Joe Musgrove picked up Williams in the seventh and pitched two hitless innings.  Lefty closer Felipe Vazquez allowed a one out double to Votto, that just missed leaving the park.  With two out he walked Suarez.  Pirates' manager Clint Hurdle brought in Keone Kela to get the final out.  Matt Kemp struck out looking.










Sonny Gray