A's Prospect Sonny Gray Gets First Start

[Giantmetfan07]

 
TORONTO — While the A's didn't confirm until Friday that Sonny Gray would be making his first big league start on Saturday, the news began to trickle out earlier in the week.
 
For Gray, however, he'd known since shortly after last Saturday's start for Triple-A Sacramento. The A's had let him know this was in the offing.  It's his second promotion in the last month when Oakland's first-round pick in the 2011 draft spent the middle 10 days of July on the A's roster, twice pitching out of relief.
 


``It's still a shock, it's still exciting,'' Gray said in the A's clubhouse Friday. He flew in with Adam Rosales, the veteran infielder who was claimed by the A's from Texas Thursday and who was active for Friday's game. ``The first time up was more of a shock; it was the first time and I was going to pitch in the bullpen.  "Now I've been here once and I'm going to be starting, so it's a little more normal.''

 
It's less normal that the start comes in Toronto. Gray has a passport so making the flight north of the border, but family members don't, so they won't be on hand for his first big league start.
 
Gray was 10-7 with a 3.42 ERA with the River Cats and had allowed no runs in four innings pitched with the A's from July 10-19.
 
The A's had been talking privately about getting Gray on the roster this month, first in the bullpen, then as a starter when Tommy Milone, since sent to the minor leagues, had struggled. Now Gray is in the rotation for the foreseeable future.
 
``He's in until he's not,'' manager Bob Melvin said. ``Right now it's all about the start tomorrow, then preparing for the start after that.''