Gray leaves with forearm soreness as A’s fall to Cubs
SUNDAY’S GAME Cubs (Kyle Hendricks, 10-7) at A’s (Sean Manaea, 3-6), 1:05 p.m. CSNCA ONLINE EXTRA View an A’s photo gallery at photos.mercurynews.com.
OAKLAND — Sonny Gray came out on the wrong end of a battle between struggling aces Saturday as the A’s fell to the Chicago Cubs 4-0 at the Coliseum.
He might be headed back to the disabled list to boot.
Although Gray pitched fairly well, he was outdueled by Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta, the 2015 National League Cy Young Award winner. Arrieta tossed eight scoreless innings, limiting the A’s to just three hits over that span.
“He’s got a sinker that’s very unique,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said of Arrieta. “He throws it at a high velocity — he can throw it straight down, or he can go backdoor. He’s got a curveball he buries in the dirt to keep people off his sinker.
“The numbers he’s put up the past couple of years show just how good he is.”
Adding to the pain of the outcome was that Gray left after the fifth inning with some soreness in his forearm. The right-hander had scattered five hits, all singles, and allowed just two runs up to that point.
“It’s just a little issue that came up,” Gray said. “(Melvin) decided to shut it down instead of risking me hurting anything else.”
Gray said he should know more on Sunday about whether he’ll miss his next scheduled start or go on the disabled list.
“He was fighting me to go back out there,” Melvin said. “Hopefully, it’s a minor thing.”
Saturday’s game was the second straight in which the A’s (48-62) struggled offensively.
On Friday, the A’s managed just one hit through the first five innings against former Oakland lefty Jon Lester en route to a 7-2 loss.
“We were swinging the bats well coming into the series,” Melvin said.
The game was also the second straight in which former members of the A’s organization came back to haunt the team.
Second baseman Ben Zobrist, whom the A’s traded to Kansas City last season, lined a two-out, two-run single up the middle in the third inning to put Chicago ahead to stay. Shortstop Addison Russell, whom the A’s sent to the Cubs as a prospect in 2014 in exchange for current Giants pitcher Jeff Samardzija, drove in Anthony Rizzo with a dribbler up the third-base line in the sixth inning, making the score 3-0.
Gray is easily having the worst season of his career. After two straight seasons with 14 wins and three straight with ERAs of 3.08 or lower, he is 5-11 with a 5.74 ERA — which, in fairness, is down slightly from the 5.84 he had entering Saturday’s game.
It didn’t help that on Saturday he got no run support. Still, that didn’t bother Gray as much as being taken out while he was pitching well.
“The most frustrating thing is that I was mixing my pitches well, and my stuff was very sharp,” Gray said. “To have it cut short like this is very tough.”
Arrieta (13-5), meanwhile, started the season strong, winning nine of his first 11 starts and pitching a no-hitter against Cincinnati on April 21, but he has struggled as of late. His 2.75 ERA entering Saturday’s game was impressive, but nowhere near as impressive as the 1.56 he had on May 31 before going 3-5 with a 4.25 ERA in his next 10 starts.
On Saturday, however, Arrieta seemed to be in his early-season form. The only hits he allowed were a second-inning double to A’s first baseman Yonder Alonso and singles to shortstop Marcus Semien and third baseman Ryon Healy.
The only other A’s batters to reach base against Arrieta were center fielder Jake Smolinski, who was hit by a pitch in the third inning, and catcher Stephen Vogt, who walked in the third.
The A’s celebrated the “Billy Ball” era Saturday by wearing throwback caps and jerseys reminiscent of the 1981 team, which was managed by the hot-tempered Billy Martin. The caps were a lighter shade of green, and the jerseys were bright yellow.
Melvin, who grew up in the Bay Area, recalled the “Billy Ball” team fondly.
“It was a very exciting brand of ball,” he said. “They had the right guys to play the style of ball that (Martin) wanted to play.”