Yankees’ Sonny Gray brags how great he is after gem against Orioles

Often-struggling Yankees righty Sonny Gray declares he’s one of the best pitchers in the American League after a great outing Saturday night against the worst-in-baseblal Baltimore Orioles.

BALTIMORE — The shocking part of Yankees pitcher Sonny Gray’s Saturday night was not his 6 1/3 innings of shutout baseball at Oriole Park.

During the right-hander’s massive struggles that led to a demotion to the bullpen, there have been occasional nights like this, and it’s important to remember this was the worst-in-baseball Baltimore Orioles that Gray was manhandling.

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But even though Manny Machado has been traded, Adam Jones had the night off and Chris Davis has gone from being a 53-homer beast in 2013 to a .168 hitter this season, Gray was out there aggressively commanding his fastball, throwing a lot of nasty sliders and getting easy out after easy out.

Give the man credit for that like the thousands of Yankees fans in the stands did with a standing roar when Gray was pulled with one out in the seventh and his club up four runs.

It was after Gray’s gem turned into a 5-1 Yankees’ win that completed a sweep of this day-night doubleheader that people will be talking about.

Here goes:

“If I can go out and throw the ball like that, I can get anybody out,” Gray said. “I know I can get anybody out. I mean I’m one of the best starting pitchers in this league and I truly believe that. I think it’s that belief that will continue to keep me moving forward and keep me to have success from here on out.”

Whoa!

Let’s back up for a second.

Gray lowered his ERA from 5.34 to 5.05 with a great outing against one of the worst teams that baseball has had in years, then proclaimed himself “one of the best starting pitchers.”

Again … whoa!

Gray has been closer to be the worst starter in the AL this season, but confidence is a huge part of being successful in the big leagues and it’s clear that his many struggles hasn’t stopped his belief that he’s still the same guy that was an All-Star and pitched to a 2.83 ERA over 31 starts for the 2015 Oakland Athletics.

Actually, it wasn’t just this one outing that had Gray boasting about his abilities.

His demotion from the Yankees’ rotation into a long-relief role the day after these same Orioles torched him on Aug. 1 at Yankee Stadium led to a sole searching about himself and getting pitching tips from his fellow relivers. 

“I think I’ve grown a lot in this last month as a pitcher and as a person just being in the bullpen,” Gray said. “I sit down there in the bullpen for nine innings and there’s really nowhere to go. You’re down there and I get to talk pitching with some of the best pitchers in the game and (hear) their mindsets and everything that goes into it. It’s different being in the bullpen. I know ultimately I want to be a starter in this league, but I’ve learned a lot down there for sure.”

Gray is heading back to the bullpen because this start was just a one-time deal where the Yankees needed a sixth starter due Saturday’s doubleheader, but he’s OK with that for the time being.

“I said the moment that I went to the bullpen that I’m still a part of this team and I’m going to do whatever they ask,” Gray said. “I’ll go back to the bullpen and I’ll do whatever I can down there or I’ll start and do whatever I can in the rotation. I’m ready for anything. I told Boonie that and I told (pitching coach) Larry (Rothschild) that, and I mean it.”

As bad as Gray has been for much of the season, give him props for being unflappable through some trying times. He’d been booed a lot this season at Yankee Stadium, the scene for many of his worst outings.

On Saturday, Yankees fans probably made up at least half of the 26,000-plus who were in the stands for Game 2 and they appreciated Gray’s no-run, three-hit, seven-strikeout, one-walk outing so much that almost all of them stood and cheered loudly when manager Aaron Boone went to his bullpen with one on and one out in the seventh and the Yankees leading 4-0.

“It sounded like a home crowd for sure,” Gray said. “That was nice. That was real nice.”

Gray deserved the cheers.

His stuff was that dominating, especially his slider.

Boone sure felt that way. During his post-game presser, he said, “I even walked over to (reliever David Robertson) once early in the game and said. ‘When you throw your really good (slider), it kind of looks like that from the side.’ It goes forward for a long time, (the break) is late, it’s sharp, it’s big and you see a lot of funny swings on it.”

Gray got of a lot of a funny swings against the Orioles, and whether that leads to more starts or just relief outings maybe this is the start of a good run of success.

“Sometimes adversity isn’t the worst thing to go through,” Boone said. “You learn a lot of things about yourself. As I’ve always said, he’s a guy that is in the prime of his career and has the equipment to be really good. You’ve seen glimpses of it and we saw a glimpse of it tonight.”

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