Blue Jays 4, A’s 1: Throwing error costs Gray.
TORONTO — Only his own error marred Sonny Gray’s potential final start with the A’s.
Gray went six innings and allowed four runs — all of them unearned, thanks to his flubbed throw to second— in Oakland’s 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays, unable to get his manager, Bob Melvin, to the 1,000-win mark after he reached 999 on Sunday. The A’s have dropped six of their past eight games, and they appear on the verge of dealing their longtime starter, the subject of rumors for the past month.
“It can be difficult at times,” Gray said of all the trade talk, “but we’ll just see what happens.” Melvin said he tried not to think about it. “I play day-today with this thing,” he said. “There is so much speculation. You try to insulate from it. We’ll see where it goes.”
Gray, a 2015 All-Star who is in his fifth season with Oakland, is a coveted asset before Monday’s trade deadline. On Tuesday at Rogers Center, seven teams had scouts on hand to watch Gray: the Yankees, who are making a strong push for the right-hander, along with the Cubs, Dodgers, Brewers, Pirates, Indians and Royals.
The Astros remain one of the frontrunners to land Gray, but the AL West leaders have seen so much of Gray that they don’t need to scout him at this point.
Several teams, including Atlanta, which scouted Gray in June, have interest in Gray because he has two more years of club control beyond this one.
Gray’s rocky inning Tuesday was the second, and, with no outs and a man on, he fueled it with his poor throw to second base on a possible double-play ball, making a lollipop of a throw into center while off balance. It was a rare event; Gray is a superior fielder who was a 2015 Gold Glove finalist.
“I made a really costly mistake that put us in such a big hole early in the game it was too big to climb out of,” Gray said. “I take pride in my defense and today it just really let everyone down.
“I went to throw to second and just airmailed it. I wish I would have just tagged first base and tried to minimize the inning there but it was one of those quick decisions and if I execute it, it’s a great play. And if you don’t ... it kind of got them rolling.”
That put runners at the corners and Troy Tulowitzki drove in one run with a groundout. Ezequiel Carrera singled, and a wild pitch put Kendrys Morales at third and Carrera at second. With two out, Ryan Goins rapped a double the other way, to left, sending in two runs, and Jose Bautista followed suit, scoring Goins.
“Other than the one inning, he pitched well, and recovered,” Melvin said. “His pitch count was up (to 67) after three innings, and we wound up getting more out of him than I thought early in the game.”
Gray’s loss was his first in July after winning his first three decisions this month. He allowed five hits, walked two and struck out nine.
Oakland’s offense has been minimal in Toronto. The A’s managed two hits and two runs Monday and six hits Tuesday. Their run came in the fourth against Cesar Valdez, who was claimed off waivers from Oakland in May and was making his first start with Toronto after four relief outings.