Rockies @ Dodgers July 25, 2021: Gray vs. Gray

Photo: Stacie Wheeler

The Dodgers are going for the series win against the Rockies on Sunday afternoon. Future Dodger(?) Jon Gray is opposed by current Dodger Josiah Gray, who is making the first start of his career.

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1:10 p.m. Los Angeles
LF Tapia SS Taylor
2B Rogers RF McKinney
RF Blackmon 3B Turner
SS Story C Smith
1B Cron 1B Beaty
C Diaz CF Pollock
CF Hilliard 2B McKinstry
3B Fuentes LF Raley
P Gray (R) P Gray (R)

Gray made his MLB debut on Tuesday against the Giants. Despite giving up four runs in four innings (three homers), he made a strong impression. He recorded seven strikeouts, walked juts one and, most impressively, generated 15 swinging strikes. Here’s the breakdown of which pitches generated whiffs:

  • Fastball – 3
  • Slider – 8
  • Curveball – 4

His slider was used exclusively against righties in his debut, while his curveball had a 14:5 usage between lefties and righties. Look for more of the same today.

The Rockies are countering with Gray, who almost assuredly will be dealt by Friday’s trade deadline. Allan wrote about him as a target earlier this week.

“Who knows, he’s a free agent after this season, so it’s likely he’d just be a rental. However, it feels like there’s enough there with Gray, where he has more potential to be unlocked just by getting out of Coors, and with a team that gets the best out of their pitchers, such as the Dodgers. There’s a solid chance that if he were acquired, he’d perform even better than he has thus far.”

And Gray is coming off a strong 7-inning outing against the Dodgers last weekend. He seems like a guy who’s just going to take off once he gets out of Colorado. Not just because of the pitching environment, but if a team like the Dodgers, Astros or Rays got their hands on him, they could probably coax the best out of him.

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Getting Corey Seager back (preferably the 2020 version) would give the lineup quite the boost. Meanwhile…

It’s literally a 10-day injured list. Just put Mookie Betts on it and be done with it.

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The Dodgers’ Top 3 starters as of now. Here’s hoping they fare better than they did this past week.

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Jake Reed seems like a very Rays reliever. Best of luck to him.

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Here’s hoping that’s true.


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First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.

About Dustin Nosler

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Dustin Nosler began writing about the Dodgers in July 2009 on his blog, Feelin' Kinda Blue, and co-hosted a weekly podcast with Jared Massey called Dugout Blues. He was a contributor/editor at The Hardball Times and True Blue LA. He graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in digital media. While at CSUS, he worked for the student-run newspaper The State Hornet for three years, culminating with a one-year term as editor-in-chief. He resides in Stockton, California.