Yankees’ Sonny Gray emotional after starring in first outing since scandal, demotion

Sonny Gray pitched the final three innings of the Yankees’ 4-3, 13-inning win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 (8/7/18) at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, Ill. It was the second straight win for the Yankees following their four-game sweep by the Boston Red Sox last weekend.

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CHICAGO — Sonny Gray never looked happier in his 53 weeks as a Yankee than he did around midnight Wednesday while he was standing at his locker talking to a crowd of reporters.

His smile was one of relief as much as it was satisfaction.

When the Yankees were down to one available reliever for Tuesday night’s marathon against the Chicago White Sox, Gray entered a tie game in the 11th inning for his first appearance since he was demoted from the starting rotation to the bullpen last Thursday.

Gray was fired up about working three shutout innings, the last of which closed out a 4-3, 13-inning victory.

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The 28-year-old righty from Nashville also was so appreciative of how his teammates reacted before and after this outing, which also was his first since he was caught off guard immediately following his bad start last Wednesday over a breaking-news scandal in which he was being questioned about a just-discovered 2012 tweet that could be viewed as racist.

Flustered, Gray tried explaining as best as he could that it was an “inside joke” when he tweeted “1. You didn’t go to college. 2. You are black” to a long-time African American buddy whom he taken “numerous vacations with.”

This all led to Gray getting trashed on social media, some of the criticism coming from Yankees fans who were angry about his 5.56 ERA over 21 starts.

Gray spent the next few days strengthening relationships with Yankees teammates and meeting with manager Aaron Boone, and going through this ordeal made him realize they all are on his side. But Gray felt that he needed to start his new role as a long reliever and do well to fill like he’d completely turned the page on this whole saga, and Tuesday night did the trick.

“It’s been a tough couple of days for me, but everyone in this clubhouse, all the guys – coaches, players, support staff … everyone’s had my back,” Gray said. “It was nice to come into that situation and pitch well enough to get a win in extra innings. That was big for me personally and for the team.”

Gray entered the game after a wild 10th inning in which Giancarlo Stanton homered with a man on to put the Yanks up 3-1 and Jose Abreu tied the game for the White Sox with a two-run, two-out blast in the bottom of the inning off Zach Britton.

He was their seventh pitcher of the night and the last available arm in the bullpen.

Britton pitched the 10th because closer Aroldis Chapman was resting for a second night in a row after throwing 39 pitches in the ninth inning of Sunday night’s 10-inning loss in Boston. Righty A.J. Cole also was unavailable because he threw 40 pitches last Saturday in Boston and another 32 in Monday’s 7-0 win over the White Sox.

“I knew I was the last guy left,” Gray said. “I knew I was in the game.”

Gray tried preparing for this moment as best he could. He’s been picking the minds of relievers David Robertson and Chad Green. He did a lot of observing.

“I don’t think anyone can prepare you for an 11th or 12th inning your first time out, but at the end of the day you sit down there and you watch the game and you stay involved and you stay aware of what’s going on and you wait for your name to be called,” Gray said.

When it was called, Gray took his time getting from the bullpen to the mound not realizing baseball’s new rules to speed up the game included one in which there are only 2-minute, 5-second breaks between innings for games not nationally televised.

“The hardest part was that run in from the bullpen,” Gray said. “It’s a long way. Then when I got out there, the umpire only let me throw three warm-up pitches because the time ran out.

“I was kind of like ‘You know what? Who cares? Just attack guys and see what happens.”

What happened was Gray worked a 1-2-3 11th inning with two strikeouts, he pitched out of a two-on, two-out jam in the 12th by retiring the dangerous Abreu on a fly ball to right, then after the Yanks regained the lead in the 13th on a two-out RBI hit by Miguel Andujar, he ended the game by working a perfect 13th.

Gray’s teammates loved it.

“Sonny coming up with the performance that he had was the highlight of the night,” Britton said. “I knew kind of what he had been dealing with and to watch him come out in a tough situation like that …

“I think everybody in here was fired up for Sonny,” Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia added after his 5 2/3-inning, one-run, 12-strikeout start. “He had a rough week. … We all pull for each other and we got fired up for him. It was good to see him do well.”

No one felt better than Gray.

“I honestly just have been sitting around waiting to get back out there no matter what the circumstance was, what the score was, what inning it is,” he said. “I just really wanted to get back out there on the mound.

“I think you know everything that’s happened the last five or six days. But at the end of the day I sat down with Boonie. I sat down with a lot of the guys. They let me know, ‘Listen, we’ve got your back and we’re here for whatever you need,’ and it was nice to come out in a situation like that and get it done.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.