Drillers' Gray finding nearly perfect form

Expectations for Jon Gray's first full season were extremely high. That comes with the territory of being the third overall pick in the 2013 Draft and the No. 14 prospect in all of baseball entering the 2014 campaign.

So when he didn't meet those expectations early, there was still the belief that he would hit his stride at some point soon.

But few saw Wednesday's performance coming.

The Rockies' top prospect took a perfect game into the sixth inning Wednesday afternoon but suffered a tough-luck loss as Double-A Tulsa fell to Arkansas, 1-0, on the road. Gray finished with eight strikeouts and one earned run allowed on three hits and no walks over six frames.

The 6-foot-4 right-hander came out of the gate quickly, striking out the side in the first inning and five of the first six Travelers he faced.

He retired 17 straight batters before Arkansas designated hitter Andy Workman slapped a single past Tulsa shortstop Joey Wong to end the perfect game bid. Workman stole second and came home on a single by Travs leadoff man Kyle Hudson in the next at-bat. Alex Yarbrough added Arkansas' third base hit of the afternoon, but Hudson was thrown out at home to close the frame. The right-hander finished his outing with 92 pitches, 66 for strikes.

After Wednesday's attempt at perfection, Gray is 1-2 with a 4.91 ERA, 19 strikeouts and only three walks through his first four Texas League starts (18 1/3 innings). The ERA is inflated by a rough showing on April 11, when the former University of Oklahoma hurler gave up six earned runs on seven hits in just two-thirds of an inning against Corpus Christi.

Gray rebounded his next time out, tossing 5 2/3 scoreless innings against Northwest Arkansas and attributed the improved results to an added emphasis on inducing grounders. He recorded five outs on the ground in Wednesday's outing, compared to one fly out, two pop outs and Hudson's out on the basepaths.

"[Ground balls were] a little bit of a priority in college," he told MiLB.com's Jake Seiner. "But being with the Rockies, you hear a lot about playing in Coors Field, and that's one of the things -- keeping the ball down. It's definitely something I've been working on for a while now. I think tonight, I really took a good step in that direction."

Arkansas left-hander Kramer Sneed (2-2) got the better of Gray and the Drillers with three hits and two walks allowed across seven scoreless innings. Relievers Carmine Giardina and Dan Carpenter each struck out a pair in the eighth and ninth, respectively.