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Aug 2, 2015 - 5:59 AM Sonny Gray is mired in the longest home winless streak of his career but is getting the ideal opponent to help end it.

The Oakland Athletics ace is coming off a shutout and now faces the other team he recently blanked as he tries to continue his mastery of the Cleveland Indians on Sunday.

Gray (11-4, 2.16 ERA) has allowed one run with 22 strikeouts in 21 innings in three career starts against Cleveland, winning both decisions on the road. No AL team has a lower batting average against him than the Indians (.129), with Carlos Santana, Yan Gomes and Jason Kipnis going a combined 1 for 22 with eight strikeouts.

The All-Star right-hander two-hit the Indians in a 2-0 road win July 12, and Cleveland (48-55) has been awful offensively in this series with six runs through three games.

Most recently, Gray tossed a three-hitter in Tuesday's 2-0 win at Dodger Stadium.

"I feel like throwing strikes was the key," he told MLB's official website. "That was the gameplan going in, and then just being able to execute the fastball to both sides. My slider was better than it has been, too, but just getting ahead was huge."

Those two shutouts made Gray 6-0 with a 1.05 ERA in his last seven road starts. It's been a different matter at home, where he's 0-2 with a 5.04 ERA in four games since beating the New York Yankees on May 29.

However, he received no runs of support in two of those outings, and the A's (46-59) are batting .197 while averaging 2.8 runs during a 2-7 stretch at home.

Stephen Vogt is in an 0-for-23 drought overall and hitting .111 in 12 contests since appearing in his first All-Star game.

Josh Reddick is a .179 hitter in 15 meetings with the Indians at the Coliseum after going 1 for 12 in this series. He was 7 for 13 with a homer and three doubles over his previous three games.

The Indians turn to Trevor Bauer (8-8, 4.13), who has lost three straight starts for the first time in his career with a 6.16 ERA despite pitching extremely well Tuesday. He gave up a solo homer in the ninth to lose 2-1 to Kansas City despite tossing a five-hitter for his first complete game, the first by an Indian in a losing effort since Justin Masterson in 2009.

"That was one of the better games we've seen from him," manager Terry Francona said. "Talk about a change of emotion in one pitch."

Facing the A's for the first time, Bauer has lost two of his last three road starts with a 5.71 ERA after going 4-1 with a 1.10 ERA in his first six.

Kipnis is 1 for 12 in this series and batting .071 in his last seven games against the A's.






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