Maybe Sonny Gray is back. Oakland’s recovering ace threw his best start of the season, striking out 8 in 6 innings and recovering beautifully from a disastrous first inning.
Mookie Betts singled to open the game on a meatball pitch. Dustin Pedroia hit a chopper to Plouffe at third, but Plouffe failed to field the ball cleanly, and then Betts advanced to third as nobody went to cover it fast enough. Things were off to a swimming start. Sonny Gray made quick work of Xander Bogaerts with a nasty breaking ball, but Hanley Ramirez went fishing for a ball at his shins and managed to simultaneously trip and hit an RBI single.