Some bad luck, a dip in fast­ball veloc­i­ty and less-than-pre­cise pitch com­mand has left Rock­ies right-han­der Jon Gray with an 0–2 record and 6.41 ERA after four starts.

His frus­tra­tion was appar­ent after his last game, a loss to Ari­zona at Coors Field in which he allowed eight runs on 11 hits in 3 1/3 innings at Coors Field. Some of those hits were sol­id, but he got nick­eled and dimed, too.

Gray is sched­uled to start Sun­day afternoon’s game against Texas, and the Rock­ies need him to get past his frus­tra­tion and pro­vide qual­i­ty innings. Man­ag­er Bud Black is opti­mistic that will happen.

“Yes, I think Jon did get frus­trat­ed because he wants to per­form and he wants to help the team win,” Black said before Sat­ur­day night’s game with the Rangers. “He’s a com­peti­tor and he feels the respon­si­bil­i­ty as a start­ing pitcher.

“Do I think it’s going to affect him mov­ing for­ward? No. Talk­ing to Jon the last few days, he’s in a good spot. His arm feels healthy and he’s fine. I think it was just a one-game frus­tra­tion with the outcome.”

Gray, how­ev­er, is a bit per­plexed by a dip in his fast­ball velocity.

“I don’t have any pains or any­thing like that,” Gray said after his last start. “Nothing’s both­er­ing me. It’s just I reach back (for veloc­i­ty), and I look up and it’s 93, 94. It’s not normal.”

Gray’s fast­ball aver­aged 96.0 mph last sea­son when he fin­ished 11–8 with a 3.84 ERA in 26 games (25 starts) before a frac­tured foot end­ed things Aug. 21. This year, his fast­ball is aver­ag­ing 93.8 mph.

Rook­ie raves. Count left-han­der Kyle Free­land as impressed with the start of Ryan Castellani’s big-league career.

“I think Castellani’s done a great job in his first two starts,” Free­land said. “He’s been elec­tric and he’s been using his pitch mix extreme­ly well. For him to pick up the (fifth starter) role, with Chi Chi (Gon­za­lez) going down, and then jump­ing right into the fire, in a very weird sea­son … I think he’s done an incred­i­ble job.”

Castel­lani, 0–0 with a 1.04 ERA, made his Coors Field debut Fri­day night, allow­ing one run (on a home run by Nick Solak in the fifth inning) on two hits with two walks and sev­en strike­outs over 4 2/3 inning. He struck out the side in the first inning, the first Rock­ies pitch­er to ever do so in his Coors Field debut, accord­ing to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Foot­notes. Nolan Are­na­do played in the 1,049th game of his career Fri­day night, pass­ing Troy Tulow­itz­ki for sixth in fran­chise his­to­ry. Here are the top five: Todd Hel­ton (2,247), Car­los Gon­za­lez (1,247), Lar­ry Walk­er (1,170), Vin­ny Castil­la (1,098) and Char­lie Black­mon (1,060). …  Although the Rock­ies’ bullpen has been some­what shaky of late (4.71 ERA), it had giv­en up only four home runs enter­ing Saturday’s game, an aver­age of just 0.57 homers per nine innings, the third-best mark in the majors.

On Deck
Rangers LHP Kol­by Allard (0–0, 1.00) at Rock­ies RHP Jon Gray (0–2, 6.41)
1:10 p.m. Sun­day, Coors Field
TV: AT&T SportsNet
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM-

Gray has not pitched poor­ly in his past two out­ings, and yes, he’s been the vic­tim of some cheap hits, but he has not been par­tic­u­lar­ly sharp either. He lost both of those out­ings, allow­ing 11 earned runs to the tune of a 10.61 ERA. The right-han­der is 0–0 with a 5.59 ERA in two career starts vs. the Rangers, both at Texas. Allard, who’s fill­ing a void in the rota­tion for the injured Corey Klu­ber, threw five score­less innings vs. the Angels last Sat­ur­day, allow­ing just two hits and one walk while strik­ing out six. He’s faced the Rock­ies just once in his career, pitch­ing one inning of relief for Atlanta, in 2018. His only pre­vi­ous start against a Nation­al League team was on Aug. 9, 2019, when he allowed two runs in 4 1/3 innings vs. Milwaukee.

Trend­ing: Gar­rett Hamp­son has tak­en the lead­off role and run with it. Enter­ing Sat­ur­day night’s game he had led off in sev­en con­sec­u­tive games, slash­ing .345/.424/.621 with one home run, two triples, a dou­ble and two stolen bases.

At issue: Though Tony Wolters con­tin­ues work­ing well behind the plate, he’s strug­gling in the batter’s box. Enter­ing Saturday’s play, he was 1‑for‑9 in five games since his lone mul­ti-hit game of the sea­son on Aug. 5 vs. San Francisco.

Pitch­ing probables
Mon­day: Rock­ies LHP Kyle Free­land (2–0, 245) at Astros RHP Bran­don Bielak (2–0, 1.76), 7:10 p.m., ATTRM
Tues­day: Rock­ies RHP Anto­nio Sen­za­tela (3–0, 3.91) at RHP Zack Greinke (1–0, 2.53), 1:10 p.m., ATTRM
Wednes­day: Astros LHP Fram­ber Valdez (1–2, 1.90) at Rock­ies RHP Ryan Castel­lani (0–0, 1.04), 6:40 p.m., ATTRM