OAKLAND, Calif. — There are many reasons Sonny Gray enjoys returning to the place he first called home in the majors, and not all of them are from the past, such as the photos of his oldest son with Stomper, the Oakland Athletics’ pachydermatous mascot. Some have come as a visitor to embattled, sometimes soggy Oakland Coliseum.
“Dude, I love it,†Gray recalled saying to teammates. “They’re like, ‘What?’â€
He shook his head a bit.
“You just don’t know it like I know it,†he said.
Few do.
Gray added a fitting bookend to his relationship with this concrete ballpark by the Bay before its ballclub moves elsewhere: In his first appearance at the Coliseum back in 2013, he got his first career win, and in what is likely his final appearance at the Coliseum, he earned win No. 100.
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The right-hander pitched six shutout innings to lead the Cardinals to a 3-1 victory late Monday night against the host Athletics. His debut with his new team delayed by a hamstring injury, Gray (2-0) has begun his Cardinals career with 11 consecutive shutout innings and two starts that have merited mementos — he’ll have a baseball inscribed from his first win as a Cardinal and now his 100th win as a major leaguer. He’s also the active leader in wins at the Coliseum with 27.
“Knew it going into this week, OK, I’m throwing the first game in Oakland,†said Gray, who was drafted by the A’s and a top prospect for Oakland when he made his first of 63 career starts at the Coliseum. “It’s probably going to be my last start here, and I’ve had so many starts here. Knowing the whole week this is probably the last one that you’ll have, probably the last time we’ll play here. It was pretty special. Pretty special. It had a lot more meaning than just a game in the middle of whatever month it is.â€
It’s April, and there is still part of Gray going through March.
The Cardinals right-hander, five weeks removed from a tear in his right hamstring, remains on a pitch limit, one steadily increasing with each outing. He used 72 pitches to get 18 outs Monday, and this weekend, against Milwaukee, he’ll aim for around 85 pitches. Through two starts with the Cardinals, the only thing that’s been able to slow their prized free-agent signing is that pitch count, not opponents like the A’s.
“You sign him for a reason, and then he goes out there and does exactly that,†manager Oliver Marmol said. “He gives everyone around him confidence, even the hitters on the offensive side. They know what kind of game they’re going into. They know if they can score a couple here, the game is over. Give Sonny a couple of more weeks and he’s probably finishing that game himself.â€
Staked to a 1-0 lead by Nolan Arenado’s RBI single before he even threw a pitch, Gray spent most of his six innings with that run being the only run on the scoreboard.
Willson Contreras caught a runner stealing in the first inning to allow Gray to face the minimum through 3â…“ innings. He needed only 21 pitches to get the first six outs and had 15 outs on 58 pitches. When the Athletics had back-to-back meek singles in the fourth inning, Gray swept a slider past Seth Brown to strike him out on a 2-2 pitch.
Gray had six pitches at his fingertips for the second consecutive game. He got a swing and miss on five of them. Only the curveball didn’t draw a whiff from a hitter. Gray got a called strike on five of his six pitches. The change-up was the only one that didn’t freeze a hitter.
Pool all of his fastballs — cutter, four-seam and sinker — into the same group, and Gray threw each of them at least 11 times and none of them more than 16. Of the 43 fastballs he threw in any of those three variations, 35 were strikes.
Only 10 were put into play.
“That’s why there are a lot of zeroes on the scoreboard, (and) when he’s got everything going, it’s a really tough at-bat,†Marmol said. That variety of pitches is a reason the team was willing to let him build arm strength on the job, in the majors, because if one of his pitches misbehaved, he had others to remain efficient.
“There is a decent chance if things go even average to above average, he’s still efficient enough to not tax the ’pen,†Marmol continued. “(It’s) the effectiveness of what he does with those pitches. Pretty efficient about how he goes about his business, and if one is not working, he has several others to turn to.â€
As the Cardinals’ current road trip neared and Gray readied for that second game back from the injury list, he realized what was possible.
A 100th win at the place he got his first win.
A return as the ace of a staff where he arrived as a prospect.
During Gray’s warmups, Contreras sensed Gray was rushing. The catcher helped him slow down and in doing so saw something familiar. Contreras saw in Gray what he felt at Wrigley Field when he first returned there almost a year ago. Contreras said the right-hander clearly “had a lot of emotions. This was his house for many years, and he still has a love for this park.â€
“It’s a special place for me,†he said. “We lived here from 2013 to 2017, came to the ballpark here every day. I got to see the best sides of it, I guess. I got to see the sellouts and the winning the divisions and the going to the playoffs and playing in the playoffs here. Obviously, I see a different side. I got to see the best sides of it. So maybe I’m biased in that way. It does hold a special part of me. This is the team that drafted me. This is the team that gave me a shot. This is the team that believed in me. These are the fans who helped shape my career.â€
The lack of those fans Monday caught his eye.
What the few fans there had to say caught his ear.
At one point, midway through the game, a few dozen of the 5,508 present started a familiar chat echoing of the ballpark’s Mount Davis: “Sell the team. Sell the team.†The chant fizzled out just like the team’s time in Oakland appears to be doing. Major League Baseball has approved the Athletics’ move to Las Vegas, though the A’s don’t know when they’ll move, don’t know where they’ll move and don’t really know if that Vegas move will happen. About all A’s ownership knows is that after years and years of will-they-won’t-they drama with Oakland, the club is no longer welcome at the Coliseum after 2024. The lease is up.
The Athletics plan to drop the Oakland from their name and jerseys and pick up a sub-lease in Sacramento.
“I do hate — like I was out there pitching and even when I was out there, I could hear, ‘Sell, sell,’ and all this,†Gray said. “It makes me feel uncomfortable to be honest with you. I was like, man, I don’t like that.â€
Gray made his major league debut with the A’s in July 2013 at Pittsburgh. He made two relief appearances on the road, joined the rotation for a start at Toronto in August 2013, and then made his home debut Aug. 15. He pitched eight shutout innings and struck out nine against Houston for his first career win. He started consecutive opening days with the A’s in 2014 and 2015, and in 2015 against Texas, he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. A third of his six playoff starts came at the Coliseum.
More than a fourth of his career wins have come at the Coliseum.
He was an Athletic when he became a father, and his oldest son’s first three years were spent going to the Coliseum.
And after Ryan Helsley finished the game with a lickety-split ninth inning for his sixth save, the Cardinals gathered in the visitors clubhouse at the Coliseum — the one that shares a walkway with fans leaving the seats behind home plate, the one with a sometimes soupy floor, the one with the Jason Isringhausen photo hanging outside and a list of Hall of Famers who played at the Coliseum that includes Eddie Mathews but hasn’t been updated to include Scott Rolen.
In that clubhouse, deep within a once-grand place that has become a cinder block of a ballpark, Gray collected one more Coliseum memory: His new teammates applauded after he became the 13th active pitcher with 100 wins.
“I would say, as crappy as the situation is for the fans, maybe try to enjoy it,†Gray said. “It’s going to be it, right? Maybe just trying to soak it in and enjoy it. Just enjoy all the last moments and the last games and everything to get to see from it.â€
For Oakland, games like these feel closer to an ending.
For the Cardinals, games like Gray’s feel like he’s only getting started.
MONDAY’S LATE BOX SCORE
Cardinals 3, Athletics 1
St. Louis AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
Donovan dh 4 0 0 0 0 2 .254
Goldschmidt 1b 3 1 0 0 1 1 .183
Nootbaar lf 3 1 1 0 0 0 .250
Arenado 3b 4 0 2 1 0 0 .286
Contreras c 4 1 2 1 0 0 .286
Gorman 2b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .203
Winn ss 3 0 2 0 1 0 .370
Walker rf 3 0 1 1 0 1 .188
Siani rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .100
Scott cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .091
Totals 32 3 8 3 2 7
Oakland AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
Toro 3b 4 0 1 0 0 2 .273
Gelof 2b 4 0 2 0 0 1 .212
Bleday cf 4 0 1 0 0 2 .262
Nevin dh 3 0 0 0 1 1 .240
Brown lf-1b 3 0 0 0 0 3 .196
Langeliers c 3 0 0 0 0 0 .188
Butler rf 2 0 0 0 0 0 .208
Ruiz ph-lf 1 1 1 1 0 0 .500
Hernaiz ss 3 0 0 0 0 0 .083
Noda 1b 2 0 0 0 0 1 .156
Schuemann ph-rf 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Totals 30 1 5 1 1 10
St. Louis 100 002 000 — 3 8 0
Oakland 000 000 010 — 1 5 0
LOB: St. Louis 7, Oakland 3. 2B: Contreras 2 (4), Winn (2), Arenado (5), Nootbaar (1), Toro (2). HR: Ruiz (1), off Romero. RBIs: Arenado (9), Contreras (5), Walker (3), Ruiz (2). CS: Gelof (1). S: Nootbaar, Siani. DP: St. Louis 1; Oakland 1.
St. Louis IP H R ER BB SO ERA Gray, W, 2-0 6 4 0 0 0 6 0.00
Kittredge 1 0 0 0 1 1 1.29
Romero 1 1 1 1 0 1 2.08
Helsley 1 0 0 0 0 2 3.00
Oakland IP H R ER BB SO ERA Stripling, L, 0-4 52/3 6 3 3 2 4 5.32
Kelly 21/3 1 0 0 0 1 2.53
Adams 1 1 0 0 0 2 0.00
Inherited runners-scored: Kelly 2-1. HBP: Kelly (Donovan). PB: Langeliers (2). T: 2:19. Att.: 5,508.