A’s end Rockies’ four-game winning streak as Jon Gray departs with sore elbow – The Denver Post

Just when it looked like the Rockies were going to get really hot, the Oakland Athletics rolled into LoDo like a cold front and beat them, 9-5.

To make matters worse, starting pitcher Jon Gray left the game in the third inning with right elbow soreness and tightness in his forearm, manager Bud Black said after the game.

“We were being cautious with Jon, obviously, and we took him out of the game,” Black said, adding that he had not yet talked at length with head trainer Keith Dugger.

The A’s, leaders of the American League West, ripped Colorado pitching for 12 hits, including two home runs as Colorado’s four-game winning streak screeched to a halt.

The bigger concern, of course, is Gray’s health.

The right-hander has been terrific at Coors, going 4-1 with a 2.36 ERA in his first seven starts this season. Friday night, however, he didn’t look sharp right from the beginning.

“When I spoke to Jon, he indicated that his soreness impacted his pitching,” Black said. “I don’t think he felt it on every pitch. It started to tighten as the game went on. That’s when we noticed the variability with his pitch-making and with his mannerisms. We knew something was up.”

Gray walked Oakland leadoff hitter Mark Canha, who scored on Matt Olson’s double.

Sean Murphy put the A’s ahead 2-0 in the second, hammering Gray’s first pitch of the inning for a home run to right-center field. More misery followed in the Athletics’ four-run third. Canha led off with another home run, Olson singled and Gray walked Seth Brown.

That was it for Gray, who was charged with five runs on five hits and saw his ERA climb from 3.71 to 4.29.

Long reliever Chi Chi Gonzalez cracked open a window of opportunity to allow the Rockies to get back into the game. He was charged with a run in the third, then blanked Oakland in the fourth and fifth.

But Oakland roughed him up in the sixth and seventh. Canha mashed an RBI double in the sixth, and back-to-back doubles by Jed Lowrie and Sean Smith plated another run in the seventh to extend the A’s lead to 8-3.

“I wish I hadn’t given up so many runs,” said Gonzalez, who pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits. “The only positive thing I can take out of it is that a gave us some innings. That was kind of my goal when I got the call, to use (fewer) guys out of the bullpen.”

The Rockies entered the game with a 14-2 record in games when they had 10 or more hits. They had 12 Friday night, but it wasn’t enough.

Oakland added an insurance run in the eighth when Robert Stephenson walked two, setting the table for Tony Kemp’s run-scoring double off of Tyler Kinley.

A handful of Rockies players had good nights at plate, including left fielder Raimel Tapia (3-for-5, two double, two runs scored), shortstop Brendan Rodgers (2-for-3) and rookie infielder Alan Trejo, who led off the seventh with the first home run of his career.

Source: Read Full Article