G&D didn’t know who was going to stop by when they were broadcasting live from field level at Nationals Park for the home opener Monday…but who better to stop by than the actual Opening Day starter himself, Josiah Gray?
Not the best day for Gray as he was hit hard in a big Nats loss, but still exciting for the young righty.
“It was an exciting day; definitely felt the excitement of it building up, and I kind of let it all bottle up inside, but when I was throwing my warm-up pitches I tried to really embrace it, and I let out a loud yell as I was exiting the mound,” Gray said. “I just kind of just wanted to go out there with a lot of excitement. Obviously didn't go the way I wanted to, but it was fun to get that under the belt and hopefully we can turn the corner here.”
Easy to highlight what went wrong – veteran journeyman Nick Martini hit two dingers off Gray, and GP said ‘he can kick rocks’ – but there were moments he saw progress, like his clean fourth inning and a lot of swings and misses, so there is something to build on.
“I know my stuff is in a good spot, it’s just fine tuning the little tweaks, but that's what it's about,” Gray said. “It’s a six-month season, so there's gonna be ups and downs, but it's one game, one start, so it’s all about coming back on Thursday and getting ready and doing it with the boys.”
Gray threw his mid-turn bullpen on Monday prior to the home opener to be ready for Thursday’s series finale with the Pirates, and now it’s scout mode.
“Feeling good, just going to look at the hitters, look at the scouting reports and see what we got,” Gray said. “I know they had a successful series against the Marlins, so just seeing what we can pick off of those four games. Obviously, it's still early but looking at who they got and what the lineup is going to look like, and adjusting with my arsenal and just pumping myself up for the next one.”
First home start of the year so the adrenaline will likely be there, but again, it’s No. 2 of 30 or so.
“With getting spring training under your belt and one start in the regular season, you're always thinking about how can you get better and fine tune things and feel more confident out there,” Gray said. “Personally, I feel like my stuff is in a good spot. It's just a matter of sequencing and location, which is the last thing to come. You can build up your velocity and innings, but now you gotta get down to how are you gonna face this batter, how will you adjust. Those sort of things where you kind of get back into the live action and know you're going to get the ‘A’ lineup every day. That’s where you have to adjust as soon as Game 1 hits, and I think a lot of us are adjusting with that and we're going to be in a good spot.”
When he does get out there Thursday, he’ll be pitching in an upgraded stadium with a new scoreboard and LED lights, among other bells and whistles.
“I think it's gonna make the experience a lot more enjoyable for fans,” Gray said. “We're nothing without the fans and their support, and for us players, we're obviously going to appreciate looking at the scoreboard and seeing the nice little features that it has and following the game that way. A lot of us pitchers kind of always peek at the out of town box scores, so that's gonna be fun to look at and a little bit more engaging, and I'm sure the lights for our night games are going to look spectacular. Looking forward to getting it going and just making Nats Park our home again.”