Colorado Rockies morning after: Jon Gray shut you up and shut down the Mariners

DENVER – Before the wonderfully talented Gord Downie, the frontman of The Tragically Hip, passed away of brain cancer recently, he released a solo album titled “Introduce Yourself.” The first line in the second song for that record is, “Hey kids, Wolf’s home.” Downie followed up later in the song with, “I didn’t run, I didn’t vanish when I was afraid.”

On Saturday Jon Gray — The Wolf of Blake Street — reintroduced himself to Coors Field. He didn’t run in what was a pivotal start for the young stud, he shoved.

In the Colorado Rockies’ 4-1 win over the Seattle Mariners, Gray threw 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball to the tune of just five hits a walk and six strikeouts.

Rather ominously, Gray made his debut against the Mariners three years ago the last time the M’s were in Denver. That start saw the promising rookie go four innings of exciting but rather unnoteworthy ball beside the potential.

Last night, he was reborn against the same Seattle nine that he faced in his MLB debut.

"“I knew really early that Jon was going to be good because his fastball command was good,” All-Star Charlie Blackmon said of Jon Gray. “He was aggressively going after guys with his fastball.”"

Aggression was part of what was impressive for a mentally refreshed Gray. Since his poor start in the National League Wildcard game last year, it seemed as though each started doubled in importance and broke any confidence.

"“I put that panic away and had fun making pitches. I had a lot of fun out there,” Gray said. “Just be natural out there and take so many things out of mind. Forget the mechanical stuff, see the out in my head and make good pitches.”"

That’s exactly what Gray did.

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What’s more impressive is that Gray looked completely broken just six days ago in Albuquerque. He struggled to throw many strikes and walked four while failing to pitch five innings and running his pitch count above 100.

Twice in that start he dropped an 0-2 count to a 3-2 count then lost a hitter to a walk.

Early on in the game last night, that devil popped up but Gray still worked a groundout to All-Star Jean Segura.

"“Those little games within the game are fun to play,” he described. “When I play those I feel better and it makes baseball more fun… that was big.”"

Pitch by pitch, batter by batter Gray exuded confidence on Saturday. The same confidence that has eluded him since that somber day in October.

"“We have seen Jon throw a lot of good games here,” Black said. “We’ve seen starts like tonight from Jon… I think Jon was determined today to get back on track.”"

Gray walked off to a standing ovation as his team moved within two games of a playoff series.

"“I thought it was awesome, I thought it was great,” Black said. “The baseball fan here appreciates their players…  and I think they support Jon, he’s an original Rockie and he’s had some great performances here, they can recognize a great outing.”"

Next: DJ LeMahieu and the future at second base

As Downie once sung “I don’t do what I hate,” Jon Gray was just having fun.