By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – Sonny Gray tossed seven great innings and struck out eight to earn his ninth win of the year and only surrendered one run to give the A’s a 6-1 victory over cross town rivals the San Francisco Giants.

In fact, over the last six games each of Oakland’s starters have went at least six innings and have only given up one run – the longest streak for an A’s team since 1914.

On the streak, Oakland ace Gray had to say, “That’s what we’re capable of as a staff. It might look good on the outside, but on the inside it’s what we expect of ourselves. It’s just how good all of us are, and it’s nice to be able to go out and get deep into some games, not only myself, but everyone this whole homestand. It’s been big, and the offense has been able to put up some big runs for us, and that’s how you win a bunch of games in a row.”

Head coach Bob Melvin echoed the praise for his starters.

“Once starters start to get on a roll like that they’re really kind of competing with each other and pushing each other. The next guy wants to be the guy to go out there and do just as well if not better, so it becomes kind of a fraternal thing amongst the starters.”

It also helps to have the bats coming alive during a home stand that was coming off a disappointing road series loss to the hated Detroit Tigers.

The A’s were able to rattle off 11 hits against the Giants tonight including five in the third inning when the A’s put four on the board.

After a lead off single by Jed Lowrie, Nick Punto hit his seventh double of the season into left field and drove in Lowrie and gave the A’s a 1-0 lead. Crisp followed Punto with a single of his own and scored Punto to make it 2-0. After a Gentry line out and a stolen base by Crisp, Yoenis Cespedes hit a fly to short center field that easily scored Crisp and made it 3-0. To round out the inning, Derek Norris singled to left field and brought in Cesepedes who was waiting on second to make it 4-0 after three innings.

The Giants were able to score next when Tyler Colvin homered to right field on a 92 moph fastball from Gray that he left hanging over the plate and brought the deficit to 4-1.

The A’s then scored two more times in the 8th to give the A’s the 6-1 victory and seal the home series win two games to none.

The A’s and Giants head back at it on Wednesday when newly acquired Jason Hammel goes up against the struggling Matt Cain, game time  7:15pm PST.