Josiah Gray struggles with command in two

Jessica Camerato

TORONTO -- The Nationals kicked off their three-city road trip last Tuesday in the Bronx with a bounce-back start from Josiah Gray and a win. When they opened the final series of the swing on Monday in Toronto, Gray looked to keep that momentum going in his first career outing at Rogers Centre.

Instead, he pitched a season-low two innings in a 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays.

“Today, I just didn’t really have any of my good stuff,” Gray said. “You look up at the scoreboard and I throw two innings and put the bullpen in a hole really early. So, it’s just bad.”

Gray gave up four runs on four hits and four walks with two strikeouts. He was done after 63 pitches, when the Nationals made the call for Robert Garcia to start the third frame.

“It looked like he was struggling a little bit with his mechanics,” said manager Dave Martinez. “Physically, I think he’s fine. Mentally, he was forcing a lot of pitches. To me, I didn’t want to send him back out there.”

Gray has been working toward consistency this month -- he has completed a total of 19 1/3 innings in five August starts. His one-run, six-inning outing last week against the Yankees was his longest start since July 27 at Citi Field.

“I felt a little rushed today,” said Gray. “Obviously, we’ll go back and look at some video and see what we got. … I’m just running into trouble lately and just not throwing the ball in the zone as much as I’m used to, so I’ve just got to work on it and get back to the pitcher I know I can be.”

Gray relied mostly on his sinker and slider against the Blue Jays, mixing in some curveballs, four-seamers and cutters, as well as his sweeper and changeup.

“He was just flying open really bad,” Martinez said. “Couldn’t stay behind the balls, pushing a lot of balls. His misses were way off. We’ll talk to him, we’ll look at some film, we’ll try to get him straightened out before his next start.”

The struggles started early, but Gray was able to weather them at first.

After issuing a leadoff walk to George Springer, Gray quickly put two outs on the board by getting Brandon Belt and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to fly out. Another walk to Davis Schneider and a Whit Merrifield single in a two-strike count loaded the bases, but Gray escaped with a Daulton Varsho flyout. Still, his pitch count reached 23 in the opening frame.

A nine-pitch walk to Danny Jansen to open the second inning set the tone for what was ahead. Gray had the edge on a 1-2 count before he threw two balls, then Jansen fouled off three consecutive pitches and took a sinker inside for ball four. It was Gray’s longest at-bat of the game.

Another walk with one out put runners on first and second, then Gray gave up an RBI single to Springer to even the score after being handed a 1-0 lead on a first-inning RBI single from Joey Meneses.

Gray stifled Belt with his slider for the second out of the inning, but when Guerrero swung on the first pitch like he had in the first, the results were different. The Blue Jays' first baseman sent Gray’s fastball 392 feet into center field, where rookie Jacob Young slid on the warning track and missed the fly ball. Kevin Kiermaier and Springer scored to put the Nats behind, 3-1.

The next at-bat went from an 0-2 advantage to a 3-2 count to an RBI single from Schneider. Gray finally ended the second inning -- and his evening -- by getting Merrifield to fly out.

The starter had nine two-strike counts, but only four resulted in outs.

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“I just didn’t have it today,” said Gray. “I feel for the guys in the bullpen. … Those guys held them pretty tight for covering [six] innings, but I just didn’t do my job today.”

Gray is in his second full Major League season. Last year, the Nationals monitored his innings as he jumped from 70 2/3 to 148 2/3. His total is up to 137 2/3 through 26 starts this season, which makes Gray one of the young pitchers the Nats hope can benefit from a newly implemented six-man rotation.

“I just want to go out there 30-plus times and keep the team [in it] as many times as possible,” said Gray. “This month has been pretty rough for me in terms of doing that job, but we’ve got to get back to the drawing board in the next start and get back to the overall focus of keeping the team in the game, and whatever the results may be to kind of correlate that, they’ll be what they may be.”