DENVER — The Colorado Rockies are going to very careful with right-hander Jon Gray.
The third overall pick in the 2013 draft, Gray, 23, made his long awaited major league debut and hit 97 mph with his fastball.
He gave up two two-out runs in the first when he threw 33 pitches, 16 strikes, and left after throwing 77 pitches, 43 strikes, in four innings. Gray issued a one-out walk in the first to third baseman Kyle Seager, who scored on second baseman Robinson Cano’s double, and first baseman Jesus Montero followed with a run-scoring single.
After the first, Gray allowed three singles, one an infield hit, and an unearned run in the fourth that resulted from shortstop Jose Reyes’ throwing error before departing.
“That was a very positive part of the outing,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said, “the fact that he had to labor in the first and settled in and looked real comfortable after that.”
Gray left with the Rockies trailing 3-1, but they tied the score on Nick Hundley’s two-run homer in the fourth, taking Gray off the hook, before losing 10-4 to the Mariners.
The Rockies will limit Gray’s innings for the balance of the season to avoid a stressful increase over his 2014 workload. He arrived in the majors having thrown 114 1/3 innings at Triple-A Albuquerque after throwing 124 1/3 innings last year in Double-A.
“We got the big picture in mind, when you talk about bumping innings from one year to the next,” Weiss said. “We don’t want to overwhelm him with that. The first inning certainly was a factor, the fact he got so extended.”