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Red-hot Gray faces off with rival Angels

Jun 19, 2015 - 2:45 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Sonny Gray shoots for another solid start when the Oakland Athletics begin a three-game series with the AL West-rival L.A. Angels of Anaheim Friday at the Coliseum.

Gray threw 7 2/3 shutout innings and struck out nine batters in Sunday's 8-1 win over the Angels and improved to 5-1 with a 2.11 earned run average in nine career games (8 starts) in this series.

The right-hander is 4-1 with a 1.04 earned run average in his last five starts and 8-3 with an MLB-best 1.60 ERA in 14 overall trips to the mound. Gray will make his seventh start at home and is 3-2 with a 1.62 ERA.

Oakland took three of four meetings from the San Diego Padres, but failed to complete the sweep with Thursday's 3-1 loss. Kendall Graveman was dealt the hard-luck loss and gave up only two runs in seven innings, striking out six and walking one.

Josh Phegley homered for the A's, who had won four straight and six of their last eight games.

A's right fielder Josh Reddick collided with Billy Burns in the eighth inning and the former took the brunt of the blow. The two outfielders were converging on a Melvin Upton Jr. fly ball to the warning track, and Reddick took an elbow to the face and a knee below the belt.

"He's OK," Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. "Looked pretty gruesome, but he fought his way through it."

The Angels split a four-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks and won the series finale, 7-1, on Thursday. Johnny Giavotella and Taylor Featherston both homered, while Efren Navarro and Carlos Perez had two RBI apiece for the Angels, who posted a five-spot in the fifth inning.

C.J. Wilson took advantage of the support and lasted eight innings, charged with only a run and eight hits with nine strikeouts and no walks. He leveled his record at 5-5.

"I've had some games where I felt like I had a couple guys on base, and a dude would come up and hit a single or something and the guys would score," Wilson said. "Today, I was able to prevent the guy from scoring once there was a guy on base."

Anaheim has won six of 10 games and will send Matt Shoemaker to the mound Friday. Shoemaker lost to the A's on Sunday and allowed four runs -- three earned -- and six hits in 5 2/3 innings of an 8-1 loss. He is 1-2 with a 4.57 earned run average in five career games (4 starts) against the Athletics.

Shoemaker is only 2-5 in his last seven decisions and 4-5 with a 4.85 ERA in 12 total starts this season. The right-hander has pitched well on the road as evidenced by a 4-1 record and a 4.58 ERA in six assignments.

The Angels have won six of 10 meetings with the A's this season.