Deja vu: Reds rally past A’s for 2-1 win

Gray looked to be on cruise control through the first 5 innings, carrying a no-hitter this far with only a walk to Joey Votto accounting for the lone reason he had pitched out of the stretch. He walked just one.

Oakland had an 0-7 trip past year but has not had a worse road trip since the 1994 season. It’s up to the A’s to win Sunday to avoid going winless on this eight-game road trip. Five times during the streak, they’ve been held to two runs or less. Hits they had plenty of, just not many runs.

Anthony DeSclafani made his long-awaited season debut for the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night, but Oakland right-hander Sonny Gray nearly stole his thunder.

The Reds, who hit 12 home runs through the first six games of the nine-game home stand, have gone two straight games without one. Vogt homered off DeSclafani for Oakland’s run.

“Coaches have been trying to change that for years, ” he said, “almost every one of them”. And he came with a whole box of zeros for this one.

Brandon Phillips singled for Cincinnati’s second hit and advanced on a wild pitch. A Tucker Barnhart single broke it up, but Gray seemed determined to get it back as he escaped the inning without the Reds coming close to scoring. But it was the seventh when things began to fall apart for Gray and the A’s. The loss for Gray puts him at 3-6 on the year during a campaign he’d surely like to restart.

It was the 7th inning when Gray made two critical errors that ultimately cost the Oakland Athletics the game. The right-hander, picked up in last July’s trade of Scott Kazmir to Houston, gave up nothing else, but he wound up taking the loss with the A’s offense once again stalled.

Athletics: RHP Kendall Graveman (2-6) is 1-5 with a 7.03 ERA in his last eight starts.

“We’ve been so streaky, winning three, four, five in a row and then losing the same”, manager Bob Melvin said. He was getting better before the same problem flared up during a bullpen session Wednesday that led to the MRI.

Straily pitched for Oakland from 2012-14, including a playoff game in 2013. Zach Neal, called up Friday, is a long shot to get the call, but he’s not entirely out of the question if the A’s don’t need him in long relief.

Oakland is now using Max Muncy of Keller and former Ranger Jake Smolinski in right field in place of the injured Josh Reddick.

“This is where I want to be, ” he said. He’s been playing left, right and third base for Nashville.

Athletics: OF Khris Davis was out of the lineup as a precaution, a day after getting hit in the left arm by a pitch. Davis returned from tingling in his left hand, and Danny Valencia was back from a stomach illness. He was hit by a pitch Friday, too – right on the guard. In the last inning we got two guys on.