In 2004, actor Kurt Russell starred in the cult classic hockey movie, "The Miracle." Playing the role of legendary head coach Herb Brooks, he yelled at his players, “The name on the front [of your jersey] is a [heck] of a lot more important than the name on the back.”
BYU starting pitcher Nate Gray has made that message his personal mantra in his first season as a Cougar.
“I want to do everything that I can for the team. I want to get as many wins as I can, pitch as many innings as possible, keep myself as healthy as possible … If I do everything that I can for the team, then personally I will do what’s best for myself,” Gray said.
That attitude has produced big results for the Cougars, as Gray was the winning pitcher in three Big 12 wins in an eight-day span.
The first win came against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on March 26, a game that Gray entered for the Cougars in the top of the tenth. His scoreless frame set up an Easton Jones walk-off home run, capping off one of the most memorable victories of the year for the Cougars.
Just two days later, the 6-foot-6 right-hander pitched for a much longer stint, taking over in the third inning and finishing the game. He threw 99 pitches over the final 6.2 innings, striking out six and allowing just one earned run for his best appearance of the year.
Making this outing even more special was the toughness that Gray put on display. A comebacker nailed him in the ribs on only his second pitch — even after the blow, he still made the play at first.
Six days later in Waco, Texas, Gray put up another dominant performance against the Baylor Bears. Gray again pitched the final 6.2 innings out of the bullpen, throwing 122 pitches en route to five strikeouts and only one earned run.
The highlight of this one for Gray came in the bottom of the sixth: after putting runners on second and third with only one out, the righty struck out the Bears one and two hitters, getting out of the inning clean.
“Everyone was fired up. I think that was probably the greatest zero that I have ever put up,” Gray recalled. The Cougars’ bats backed Gray and BYU came out on top of that one, 10-4.
In those eight days, he threw 233 total pitches, going 14.2 innings and only allowing two earned runs
To give additional context to what an impressive feat this was, according to the BYU baseball stats database, Gray is the only BYU pitcher to have ever achieved this. There are no confirmed cases in which another BYU pitcher won three games in such a short span since the year 2000.
Now, an important note: wins on their own are a somewhat flawed statistic in baseball. Pitchers can throw poorly, but if their offense scores enough they are still credited with the win (or vice versa, they can dominate but get no help from the offense and not be given the win). Modern-day baseball coaches and analysts have begun moving away from using wins as a main stat to evaluate pitchers.
But that span of a little over a week was not Gray lucking into wins because of his offense. Watching Gray over those eight short days compared to the beginning of the year could give fans whiplash — almost a night-and-day shift for Gray. Going into that March 26 game against Oklahoma State, Gray had struggled to a 7.52 ERA, allowing 17 earned in only 20.1 innings of work.
How did a guy make a shift that drastic in the middle of conference play? How did he go from a 7.52 ERA to a 1.23 ERA when his competition had arguably only gotten better?
Gray’s answer: tapping back into “the wild side.”
“Back at Pima [Community College], I was the guy that was kind of a whack job on the mound," he said. "I enjoyed having that persona because it would make people think ‘Oh man, I don’t want to mess with that guy.’ Usually when guys hold that kind of demeanor, everyone notices."
It’s been in rediscovering that mentality that he has unlocked this new level. As he puts it, “I kind of got away from it at the end of the fall and into the start of the season and I don’t really know why.”
“Once I realized that, I decided I just gotta go back to being who I've always been and who I enjoy being on the mound. Not calm and collected, but like, ‘This is when we get weird.’”
Gray doesn’t credit his recent success solely to “getting weird,” noting that anyone can go throw hard. For him, pitching coach Adrian Dinkel and director of pitching development Bradon Zastrow have helped him harness the maniac inside.
Speaking on all the work that goes into developing game plans, Gray joked, “[Dinkel and Zastrow] go in knowing every single hitter and what they eat for breakfast, probably.”
“They give us all the information to give us the best opportunities to succeed. I’m going to keep riding with them, because they put in every bit of work and every ounce of effort to help us be the best versions of ourselves. I can’t be more grateful for them," he added.
One of the biggest changes they have helped Gray make is the transformation from simply a “thrower” into a pitcher. He explained that at the junior college level, a pitcher could get away with just throwing the ball hard because hitters lacked the pure power to get it over the fence. Now that he’s in the Big 12, he’s facing a whole new kind of batter and has had to morph his pitching style to compete.
“They [Dinkel and Zastrow] have really helped me dial in understanding why I throw what I throw. It’s not just ‘oh, throw it super hard and hope they don’t hit it.’ It’s throw it hard in that specific spot,” Gray said.
The specific pitches Gray is utilizing to hit those specific spots include a heater, slider, changeup, and newly added cutter. While his slider is his self proclaimed “best pitch” that he goes to if he needs an out, his psyched up mindset still loves trying to blow the fastball by batters whenever he can.
“Man, I love throwing that thing. I love throwing hard and I love throwing in the zone," he said.
These recent shifts have been the perfect storm for Gray, who’s turning heads not only in Provo but all over the conference. After notching another win on April 11 against the Houston Cougars, he brought his season total to six, making him the sole wins leader in the Big 12 as of April 13.
Now, as the Cougars roll into the second half of conference play, personal wins and losses remain less important for Gray than his team’s success.
“I want to make sure that these boys know that I'm playing for them; I'm not playing for Nate Gray," he said. "I’m playing for the BYU Cougars.”
That team-first commitment would make the great coach Brooks proud and is helping carry the Cougars to their best Big 12 season to date.