OAKLAND, Calif._The mystery that is Sonny Gray continues to deepen in the wake of Friday's 7-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Gray, the Oakland ace, hasn't won a game since April 22. He spent a couple of weeks on the DL during that time, but that still leaves him with an 11-start streak in which he has not won.
The A's gave him a 3-1 lead after two innings Friday, but Gray wasn't up to handling it, needing 94 pitches to cover just six innings. Pittsburgh scored off him in every inning from the third through the sixth when the Pirates scored three times after there were two out and no one on base.
Without their ace pitching back to form, it's difficult to see the A's turning around a season that sees them 10 games under .500 at 35-45 at the 80-game mark of the season.
After his time on the DL was up, Gray's game picked up, and he came into Friday with a 3.23 ERA in his last five starts. The Pirates didn't do anything to him in the first couple of innings, but after Jordy Mercer's homer one out into the third inning, Pittsburgh seemed to find Gray's vulnerability.
The first of two Gray wild pitches brought home a run in the fourth inning that cut the early A's lead to 3-2. Gray, now 3-7, has now thrown 13 wild pitches this season, five more than anyone else in the Major Leagues, and four of the 13 have come with a man on third to score a run.
Three consecutive singles opened the Pittsburgh fifth. The third of those, from Mercer, brought the tying run home and a grounder from Chris Stewart put the Pirates ahead to stay. An inning later Gray got two quick outs before hitting a batter, throwing his second wild pitch and issuing a walk.
Matt Joyce singled home one run and Josh Harrison doubled home two more as Gray's deficit fell to 7-3. This was the third time this season Gray has allowed seven earned runs in a start, a major reason his ERA is a bloated 5.42.
Marcus Semien got the A's out quickly with his fifth homer in his last nine games and his 17th of the season, a shot to left off Pirates' lefty Jeff Locke. That was promising, as was a second inning run that made it 3-0 on a two-out Yonder Alonso single and RBI double from Jed Lowrie.
After that, though, Locke settled in to get the Pirates through five innings. The A's wouldn't scuff the Pittsburgh bullpen, going down tamely with just one hit after Lowrie's double in the second.
_The international signing period for Major League teams starts Saturday, and the A's are expected to make a big splash with the signing of 17-year-old Cuban outfielder Lazaro "Lazarito" Armenteros. Sources say Armenteros, who played for the Cuban national youth team before defecting to Haiti and eventually winding up in the Dominican Republic, is expected to get in the neighborhood of $3 million. Scouting reports say the 6-foot-1, 205-pound right-handed slugger has above average power and speed. And while he'll probably be slotted in right field, playing center field is within his ability. Multiple scouts project him as an impact offensive player.
_The A's will activate Rich Hill from the disabled list Saturday, at which point the club's mixing and matching of starting pitchers may be at an end. Oakland leads the American League with 11 different starting pitchers used, and such is the state of the A's injury problems that eight of those have started at least once since June 8, a total of 21 games. None of those eight is Hill, who leads the team with eight wins and was on the path to a possible All-Star berth with a 2.25 ERA and an AL-best .267 opponents' slugging percentage. He hasn't pitched since May 29 when a groin injury cropped up that would carve almost five weeks out of his season.
_As expected, the A's sent left-handed starter Dillon Overton down to Triple-A Nashville and recalled infielder/outfielder Tyler Ladendorf. The move gets a backup player at second base and shortstop on the roster. The A's had been without a backup at either spot Wednesday and Thursday while holding onto extra relievers as part of propping up a tired and injured bullpen. Melvin said he will have Ladendorf start once this weekend, probably Sunday.
_Jake Smolinski got his first Major League start in center field Friday. It was a chance for Melvin to give Coco Crisp a day off against a left-handed starter, Jeff Locke of the Pirates, and keep Smolinski's hot bat in the lineup. Smolinski, who hit .400 in June with four homers and 11 RBI in 19 games, said most of his starts at Nashville earlier in the year were in center, "so I've played there enough, just not at the Major League level."
_Khris Davis, who missed the last two starts after slamming his left shoulder into the outfield wall in pursuit of a fly ball, was back in the lineup Friday. "We gave him an extra day yesterday," Melvin said. "There's probably a little something still there."
_Jed Lowrie was the Oakland leadoff hitter Friday, the first time in 80 games that neither Crisp nor Billy Burns had led off. Lowrie doesn't have the speed of a classic leadoff hitter, but Melvin had him lead off five times in 2013 and once in 2014.
