The Oakland A's are going with the kid.
As manager Bob Melvin explained to Jane Lee of MLB.com on the decision to opt for Sonny Gray over Bartolo Colon:
The rookie turned in a dominant performance in Game 2 as he worked eight scoreless innings. Ultimately, as Melvin told Lee, it was that impressive outing that earned the 2011 first-round pick the nod.
However, as Guy Haberman of 95.7 FM The Game noted, that remarkable debut could actually play against Gray:
Gray has only made 10 regular-season starts, and in that limited time he's never faced the same team in back-to-back outings, so it's ...
Rookie Sonny Gray—not Bartolo Colon—will start Thursday night’s deciding Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Detroit Tigers.
With the best-of-five ALDS tied at two games apiece and headed back to Oakland, A’s manager Bob Melvin decided to bypass the 40-year-old Colon, an 18-game winner and All-Star during the regular season, in favor of the 23-year-old right-hander.
In the series opener, a 3-2 loss, Colon surrendered three runs in the first inning and put the A’s in an early hole against Max Scherzer. Gray, of course, was brilliant in Game 2, tossing eight shutout innings with nine strikeouts as ...
With a do-or-die situation heading into Game 5 of the ALDS, the Oakland Athletics would be wise to choose rookie starter Sonny Gray to take the mound against Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers.
Jane Lee of MLB.com floated the idea and is reporting that manager Bob Melvin has yet to make a decision on the matter, which points to there being a good shot for Gray to get the nod:
There's a case to be made for rookie Sonny Gray getting the nod over veteran Bartolo Colon for Thursday's decisive Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Tigers, and it's one the ...
The Oakland A's and Detroit Tigers are headed to Game 5 to determine the winner of their ALDS series and the right to challenge the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS for a spot in the World Series.
We know who Jim Leyland is choosing to start for Detroit in this do-or-die fifth game. The 2011 Cy Young winner, Justin Verlander, will take the mound for the Tigers in Oakland on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, A's manager Bob Melvin is yet to determine his starter for this must-win game, but it is clearly down to two options: Bartolo Colon and Sonny Gray.
Both ...
The Oakland A's have been here before.
For a second year in a row, the A's are slated to face off against Justin Verlander in Game 5 of the ALDS. Recent history is not on Oakland's side, but the club is glad to be playing Game 5 at the O.co Coliseum. As table-setter Coco Crisp explained to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle:
“It’s good to have the home-field advantage...I don’t know if they can get any louder than it was the last time. If they can top that, that would be amazing.”
Crisp's question won't be answered until game time. So, here are ...
The Oakland Athletics are one win away from clinching the 2013 American League Division Series against the Detroit Tigers and will have to go through Tigers starting pitcher Doug Fister if they want to do so in Game 4, which will start at 5:07 p.m. ET on October 8.
Fister finished the regular season with a 14-9 record and a 3.67 ERA.
Fister will have to contend with an Athletics team that has turned up the heat as of late. After scoring a combined three runs in their first two games of the series, Oakland eventually scored six against Tigers pitcher Anibal ...
The Oakland Athletics are now one win away from clinching the 2013 American League Division Series after defeating the Detroit Tigers, 6-3, in Game 3. They now hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.
After the previous game in this matchup, a great pitchers' duel, resulted in a 1-0 final, the offenses came alive in this one. Coco Crisp led the way with three hits, and Oakland showcased its balance as six different players scored runs in the victory.
Starting pitcher Jarrod Parker did enough on the mound to earn the win with five innings of three-run ball, although he was helped ...
Welcome to October, kid. I know you've only made 10 big league starts, but here, take this ball and go shut down the Detroit Tigers before they put us in a hole deeper than the one we're already in.
Oh, and by the way, you're going to have to outduel Justin Verlander.
Such words probably weren't actually spoken to him, but that's the situation Oakland A's rookie right-hander Sonny Gray was facing in Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night. If he didn't step up, the A's stood a very good chance of being put ...
In 2012, the Oakland A's and Detroit Tigers played a full-length five-game series to determine who would advance to the ALCS.
It looks like that could be the case again one year later.
If the first two games of the ALDS are any indication, this will be a highly competitive bout. Game 1 went to the Tigers, 3-2, while Oakland celebrated a walk-off 1-0 win in Game 2.
This is October baseball at its finest.
The Tigers have a stacked lineup with names like Tori Hunter, Prince Fielder, Victor Martinez and MVP-candidate Miguel Cabrera among others. Despite the star power in their lineup, ...
The eyes are wild, the face tight and taut. He is caught in pre-fling, rage washed over his mug. He is prepared to throw the bat, and it looks as if he wants the lumber to behead its intended target.
Bert Campaneris is shown in the photograph in the split second before he whips the bat toward Tigers pitcher Lerrin LaGrow.
That moment of indiscretion fired the first salvo in the playoff wars between the Oakland A’s and the Detroit Tigers.
It came in Game 2 of the 1972 American League Championship Series, in Oakland. The A’s had won Game 1 and were ...