Rangers Lose To A’s On Opening Day
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OAKLAND, Calif. — After losing on Opening Day each of the past three years, the Oakland Athletics did just fine, earning a postseason berth each season.
Their quest for a fourth straight playoff spot will begin from an unfamiliar perch one day into the 2015 season — atop the American League West standings.
Right-hander Sonny Gray took a no-hitter into the eighth inning Monday night, and Ben Zobrist belted a two-run home run on his first swing for Oakland, helping the A’s snap a major-league-record, 10-year losing streak on Opening Day with an 8-0 victory over the Texas Rangers.
The win was Oakland’s fourth straight against Texas in an opener, and its first against any opponent since the last time the A’s saw the Rangers on Opening Day, in 2004. Texas hasn’t won on the road to begin a season since 2003.
“That’s all you really hear about: Oakland hasn’t won on Opening Day,” Gray said of the common theme of questions he had to answer on the eve of the opener. “To win on Opening Day, that’s important. That’s a good win for us.”
Making his second consecutive season-opening start, Gray retired 21 of the first 23 batters he faced before Rangers left fielder Ryan Rua laced a two-strike single to right field to open the eighth. It was Texas’ lone hit of the night.
“I don’t feel I made that bad a pitch,” Gray said of the fastball. “I wouldn’t take that pitch back.”
Texas’ first two baserunners were the result of Gray hitting second baseman Rougned Odor with a
pitch with two outs in the third and Zobrist, playing left field, dropping center fielder Leonys Martin’s fly ball for a two-base error in the sixth.
Playing with an entirely new cast behind him than in the 2014 opener with the exception of second baseman Eric Sogard, Gray was pulled with a 7-0 lead after he threw 98 pitches in eight innings. He allowed just the one hit and one walk while striking out three.
The 24-year-old was attempting to become the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter on Opening Day since Hall of Famer Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians accomplished the feat in 1940 against the Chicago White Sox.
“We had a plan,” said the Rangers’ Jeff Banister, who was making his major league managerial debut. “You can put all those things together, but when the guy on the mound is pretty good, he’s going to have a say-so also. Sonny pitched awfully well tonight.”
The A’s scored only 13 runs during their 0-10 run in Opening Day games, but they exploded for 11 hits Monday, including six for extra bases, against Rangers right-hander Yovani Gallardo and three Texas relievers.
Zobrist’s home run into the right field bleachers in the bottom of the first inning gave Gray all the support he would need. It came on the second pitch the former Tampa Bay Ray saw from Gallardo and followed a triple by center fielder Sam Fuld.
“It was great. I couldn’t expect it to be any better,” Zobrist said of his first impression on the sellout crowd of 36,067. “Sammy (Fuld) put me in a good spot. All I was trying was to get the run in. He took all the pressure off.”
Catcher Stephen Vogt added a three-run homer in the seventh inning to break the game open.
Fuld, Zobrist, Vogt and Sogard all had two hits for the A’s, who posted baseball’s second-best record (22-11-2) in the spring. Zobrist and Vogt both had doubles to complement their home runs.
Right-hander Evan Scribner pitched a hitless ninth to complete the shutout, which was just the second in A’s history in an opener.
Acquired in a trade from the Milwaukee Brewers in the offseason, Gallardo had two runs against his Rangers record after having faced just three hitters. Fuld’s one-out triple off the wall at the 388-foot mark in right-center field went almost as far as Zobrist’s homer 10 rows clear of the 362 sign in right two pitches later.
After a two-run fourth that included a double by Vogt, Gallardo was pulled one batter into the fifth. He allowed four runs and six hits in four-plus innings. Gallardo walked one and struck out five while seeing his record in six Opening Day starts fall to 1-3.
“One big mistake,” Banister said of Gallardo, who struggled through 89 pitches in his short stint. “Four of the eight innings we pitched tonight, we threw 20-plus pitches. That’s not as efficient as we’d like to be.”
