Graveman rocked in big game for Blach
Kendall Graveman’s return to the A’s after missing nearly three months coincided with the departure of his close friend Sonny Gray. Gray was traded to the Yankees on Monday, and Graveman stepped right back into the rotation Thursday, almost as if it were planned that way. Lose a top starter, gain a top starter.
The transition was not quite that smooth, as things unfolded. Graveman was hit hard in the first and lasted just two innings in Oakland’s 11-2 loss in China Basin. He was outpitched by Giants rookie Ty Blach, who went eight innings and also hit his first big-league homer, a three-run blast in the fifth to help San Francisco split the four-game, home-and-home series.
“It was the Ty Blach show tonight,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “Eight innings, three-run homer. What a game he had. He’s one of the silver linings we’ve had this year.”
Graveman’s two shortest outings have come at AT&T Park — he went 1 1⁄3 innings July 26, 2015. Both times, he faced nine batters in the first inning. “Sometimes that first start back can be a little out of sorts,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said, noting that Graveman’s velocity was actually better in the second inning. “They were just on him.”
Graveman, the A’s Opening Night starter, was making his first appearance since May 19 after his second stint on the DL with a right shoulder strain. “I was excited to be back out there, but, of course, that’s not the way you want to go your first one back,” Graveman said. “But I can man up and say I’m going to get better. The arm feels good. That’s not a problem, but now I’ve got to locate and get that
movement back.”
His sinker, typically Graveman’s best pitch, was breaking a little too early. “I don’t think the movement was quite there,” he said. “It was early out of the hand and found some barrels . ... I wasn’t on top of the baseball as much as I have in the past.”
With one out in the first, Graveman gave up hit after hit, four in a row, including RBI singles by Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford. Then, with two outs, Jarrett Parker whacked a double to center, driving in two more. It was Parker’s first hit since April 12; he came off the 60-day DL on Thursday. Parker, who had a three-hit night, is 11-for-21 lifetime against Oakland, with seven extra-base hits. “I’m looking at his numbers and going, ‘How?’ ” Melvin said. “We either need to change our scouting report on him or make better pitches.”
Graveman threw 28 pitches in the first, not ideal for a pitcher just off the DL. And the Giants kept knocking him around in the second. Denard Span led off with a double, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Ryder Jones, then Brandon Belt crushed a homer to leftcenter. Belt’s 18 homers match his career high, set in 2015.
It took a standout play by Chad Pinder in right to help get Graveman out of the second; Pinder made a face-first diving grab on Hunter Pence’s flare down the line. “That was a tough one, obviously you have to get out there and lay out for that one,” said Pinder, who had been primarily an infielder until turning into a utility player.
“He just continues to impress,” Melvin said.
Defense was on display all evening. Pinder played Belt’s first-inning double bare-handed off the wall and nearly threw him out at second; Crawford made a leaping, twisting catch to rob Mark Canha of a single in the third. And in the fifth, first baseman Ryon Healy fielded a tapper by Crawford and made a nifty glove flip to Chris Smith covering.
That was the second out of the fifth, but the Giants then went on another hit spree, with backto-back doubles by Pence and Parker. After an intentional walk to Joe Panik, Blach belted a 1-0 fastball from Smith over the center-field wall.
After the homer, Blach heard from Span in the on-deck circle.
Said Blach: “He was kind of like, ‘Did you really just do that?’ So it was cool, a good moment.”
Blach gave up six hits and a walk. He struck out four. The A’s got one run in the fourth on Matt Chapman’s two-out bloop to right, which sent in Jed Lowrie, and another in the eighth on Rajai Davis’ homer to left. Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser