OAKLAND — The A’s have managed to keep just one starting pitcher healthy all season, but there’s no telling if Sonny Gray will make his final start next week in Anaheim after beating the Giants 5-4 Friday.
Gray, troubled by a hip injury in his last start against Houston, gave up two runs in the first inning and kicked into gear after that. He said the hip pain flared up again in the fifth inning, and after pitching out of a jam in the sixth the A’s weren’t going to push it with their ace.
“I was pressing with my pitches in the sixth,” Gray said, singling out a battle with the Giants’ Marlon Byrd that resulted in a strikeout with men on second and third. “In the fifth I threw a pitch, it slipped a bit and started to be sore.
“After the sixth, those pitches to Byrd were pressure pitches and I might have been amped a little too much. It kind of locked up. They asked how I was feeling, and I said, ‘My hip’s kind of tight.’ So we went to the bullpen and it worked out for us tonight.”
Gray, now 14-7 with a season-high 2.73 ERA, said he should know Saturday based on how he feels when he wakes up if he’ll be able to start on schedule in Anaheim in what would be his final start of the year.
He got three innings of relief split between rookie Ryan Dull and closer Sean Doolittle. Dull wound up allowing his first two runs of a major league career that is now nine games old, one of those scoring on a hit off Doolittle.
Friday’s win brought a five-game Oakland losing streak to a close in the first of a three-game set to end the A’s 2015 home season. It was the A’s first win of the season against San Francisco, which had swept a three-game series across the bay in July.
Gray put the A’s in an immediate hole when he opened the game with a walk, then saw the Giants’ No. 3 hitter, Matt Duffy, crush a home run to center.
Unlike other recent games when the Oakland ace had early struggles continue to blossom out of control, Gray immediately kicked in after that, retiring the next nine batters he faced in order.
“After the homer, I just went back to nodding my head when (Stephen Vogt) gave the sign,” Gray said.
It was the first start behind the plate since Sept. 6 for Vogt, who was sidelined by a foul tip grounder to his groin that was slow to heal. Gray, who isn’t above bouncing pitches in the dirt to get hitters to bite, said he teased Vogt before the game.
“I told him, ‘You’re getting thrown right back into the fire, huh?’ ” Gray said. “I said ‘Good luck. I hope I don’t spike too many heaters.’ “
Gray spiked some, but Vogt survived nicely, so much so that he’s expected to start Saturday’s game with Barry Zito making what is likely his final major league start, matched up against ex-A’s teammate Tim Hudson.
“I was happy to get back behind the plate; I’ve been really wanting to do that,” Vogt said. “I feel great, and as long as I wake up in the morning without pain, which I don’t think I will have pain, it’s going to be huge. It’s such an honor for me even to be playing in the game let alone being the one catching for him.
“It’s going to be a special day for Bay Area baseball fans. Especially for the Oakland A’s franchise, because that’s where it started.”