Oakland’s Sonny Gray blanks Astros for 1st career win

In just his 2nd career Major League start, Oakland Athletics rookie starter Sonny Gray put on an absolute show in dismantling the Houston Astros for his first career victory. Gray tossed 8 shutout innings, allowing only 4 hits and 1 walk, to lead the A’s to a 5-0 victory on Thursday afternoon, and he was brilliant in doing so.

Gray struck out 9 Astros on the way to the victory, and while Houston is famous for allowing high strikeout totals, the way that Gray took them apart was a thing of beauty. The 23-year-old navigated through the lineup with relative ease, throwing 75 strikes in the process, and only the red-hot Robbie Grossman did any real damage with 2 hits.

Offensively, Oakland didn’t need much to give Gray the chance to win, but a monster, 4-for-4 day from Nick Freiman stood out in a major way. In keeping with the theme of young guys excelling, Freiman hit only the 3rd home run of his career in the game, and was the clear offensive standout for a team with a potent offense this season.

However, the big storyline of the day was the performance of Gray, and with Oakland in the midst of a playoff run, his presence could be huge. The A’s have been a slave to injury-riddled youngsters like Brett Anderson for years, but they’ve pitched well enough to generate a 68-52 record this season. Gray’s status as a top-flight prospect lends some credibility to this performance as anything but a “fluke”, but Oakland could desperately use more of this excellence as they try to chase down the Texas Rangers in the AL West.