Sonny Gray has, unsurprisingly, been a veteran, anchoring presence in the Boston Red Sox's rotation through a tumultuous first-third of the season. Poor offensive showings and injures to key arms like Garrett Crochet have demanded results from Gray and he's delivered.
Gray has posted a 3.06 ERA, a 1.20 WHIP, 41 strikeouts and 14 walks over 50 innings. He had a 15-day minimum injured list stint from April 12-May 6 and he came back from his hamstring injury better than he was before. Through five starts in May, Gray has logged a 2.00 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP across 27 innings.
After a slow start to the year, Gray has drastically picked up his strike-throwing since his IL stint. Twenty eight of his 41 strikeouts on the season came during his five starts in May, including a nine-strikeout outing against the Kansas City Royals on May 18. His strikeouts per nine innings count increased from 5.1 to 9.3.
Gray's next start will come on June 5 against the New York Yankees and he'll need to maintain his recent steps forward to give the Red Sox a chance against them. The Yankees have been one of the top teams in MLB all season and they recently got even better after Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón's returns from the IL.
Sonny Gray must continue latest breakout with Red Sox into Yankees series
New York is one of the strongest offensive teams year after year, and Boston will need rock-solid pitching performances to afford its offense the chance to keep up. The Yankees are slashing .241/.329/.432 with an American League-leading .761 OPS. They've hit an MLB-best 86 homers this year while the Red Sox have hit just 44, the second-fewest in the league.
Gray might have a little extra motivation headed into the Yankees series in the form of a chip on his shoulder. The veteran formerly suited up for the Yankees during the second half of the 2017 season and into 2018. The latter campaign, his age-28 season, was one of the least memorable of his career — he posted a 4.90 ERA and 8.5 K/9 over 130.1 innings.
It didn't take long for Gray to let the Red Sox know about his distaste for the Yankees. Back in December, shortly after his trade to Boston, Gray gave Sox fans his perspective on the Yankees rivalry.
"What did factor in my decision to come to Boston... it feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it's easy to hate the Yankees. It's easy to go out and have that rivalry and go in it with full force" Gray said. "New York [just] wasn't a good situation for me, wasn't a great setup for me and my family. I never wanted to go there in the first place."
If Gray continues his recent progress against the Yankees, the Red Sox could get even after their early-season series loss. Boston's offense has also picked up in the last month, and its .260 average is the third-highest in MLB in that span.
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