Something new for Sonny Gray and Twins: pitcher calling his own pitches

FORT MYERS, Fla. — As the pitch clock counted down, Sonny Gray positioned his glove at his waist so nobody could see. With his other hand, he pushed a button on the device attached to his belt, one that announced to catcher Christian Vazquez what pitch he intended to throw.

The PitchCom era, it seems, may evolve into the CatchCom era for at least some pitchers.

"I liked it," Gray said of his decision, legal under baseball's rules, to reverse the usual electronic catcher-to-pitcher pitch-calling dialogue and call his own pitches. "I just want to keep messing with it, playing with it. … We may end up really liking it. I feel like it'll speed up the process of us getting on a similar page."

Gray made his Grapefruit League debut Friday and pitched almost two innings — he was pulled after throwing 25 pitches in the first inning, then returned to the game in the second — of the Twins' error-filled 9-4 loss to the Red Sox at Hammond Stadium. It was Gray's first experience with the new pitch clock, and he was the first Twins pitcher ever to take charge of the PitchCom device from his catcher.

"It was a great day to just figure out a lot of stuff, learn a lot of stuff, and re-evaluate," the veteran righthander said.

Mostly, he learned that the pitch clock isn't a problem to abide by, but it's a big distraction when you're on the mound. Gray found himself calling a pitch, getting set to throw it, then glancing at the clock instead of focusing on making the pitch as perfect as possible.

"I ain't gonna lie to you, I caught myself looking at that doggone clock a lot," Gray said. "My pace is fine. It [shouldn't even be] in your brain because you'll get to where you'll have an internal clock. You need to build in an internal clock."

Gray's springtime clock, at least, is in far better shape than a year ago, when his duties as a player representative during the lockout meant he wasn't at full strength when the season started. His fastball is already at 92-93 mph, he's working in a new cutter he hopes to use this year, and "I feel good. Overall, no walks, no really hard contact. A good start."

And a good introduction to Vazquez. Gray doesn't know if he'll keep calling his own pitches but said using it that way on Friday allowed his new catcher to learn how he thinks and how he approaches hitters.

The day wasn't as good for the Twins defense, which committed four errors, or for Emilio Pagan, who gave up a grand slam. Pagan loaded the bases in his inning with an infield error, a walk and a single before Red Sox catcher Reese McGuire drove a fastball into the right-field seats.

Another Red Sox catcher, former Twin Caleb Hamilton, also homered during the game, as did Twins third baseman Kyle Farmer.