by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s ended a 10 game losing streak on Opening Day. The A’s behind the stout pitching of Sonny Gray defeated the Texas Rangers 8-0. There were many story lines to the game, but the most impressive one was the performance of Sonny Gray. Sonny had a no-hitter going through seven innings. The Rangers’ Ryan Rua singled to lead off the eighth and that was the only hit the Rangers could muster all night. Gray went eight innings allowing just one hit, walked one and struck out three. He threw 98 pitches and 66 went for strikes. The A’s got contributions from several players in recording the win. Ben Zobrist in his first game in an A’s uniform had a home run and a double and two runs batted in. Brett Lawrie, who came over from Toronto in the Josh Donaldson trade, made two nice defensive plays and had a single in his A’s debut. Billy Butler had a double and scored a run in his first game wearing the Green and Gold. Marcus Semien also made a nice defensive play at shortstop and Ike Davis also was impressive on defense. Stephen Vogt drove in four runs with a double and a three-run homer in the seventh that iced the win for Oakland.

The A’s started off the first inning with a bang. With one out, center fielder, Sam Fuld blasted a triple to the base of the wall at the 388 foot mark. The next batter, Ben Zobrist, who was playing in left field tonight, hit a home run to give the A’s an early 2-0 lead. It was Zobrist’s first at bat as an Oakland A and the crowd went crazy.

The A’s put two more runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth. First baseman Ike Davis started things off with a walk. With one out, Stephen Vogt doubled down the left field line to put men on at second and third with one out. Shortstop Marcus Semien singled to drive in Davis. For Semien, it was his first hit as an Athletic. Vogt advanced to third and then scored when Rangers’ starter, Yovani Gallardo, uncorked a wild pitch allowing Vogt to score giving the A’s a 4-0 lead after four innings of play.

The A’s broke it open in the bottom of the seventh. Designated hitter, Billy Butler, walked with one out and then advanced to second on a Brett Lawrie single. A’s catcher, Stephen Vogt, blasted a shot to deep right field off Ranger reliever Phil Klein to make it 7-0 in favor of Oakland after seven. The A’s added another run in the bottom of the eighth. Eric Sogard led off with a single. With one out Sam Fuld walked to put men on at first and second. Billy Butler, signed as a free agent after many years with the Kansas City Royals, doubled to drive in Sogard with the eighth run of the game for the A’s. Final score 8-0 in favor of Oakland.

Notes- The last time the A’s won on Opening Day was in 2004. The only no-hitter ever pitched happened in 1940 when Bob Feller no-hit the Chicago White Sox. The last shutout on Opening Day in Oakland A’s history happened when the A’s shut out Seattle in 2003. Ben Zobrist became the first player to homer in his first at-bat on Opening Day since Josh Willingham in 2011.

After the game, A’s manager Bob Melvin was all smiles due to the performance of his team He said that doesn’t guarantee the A’s will win on Tuesday, but it’s just fine for right now. He was ecstatic about Gray’s performance and felt that Gray had everything working for him. Gray had good velocity on his fast ball and his cutter and slider was also working well. Stephen Vogt said that Gray knew he had a no-hitter going and was upset when Rua singled. Melvin also said Rua’s hit made it easy for him to take Gray out of the game after the eighth inning. He was concerned that ray might have to go nine full innings and the most he pitched in Spring training was just six.

The series continues Tuesday night in Oakland. The A’s will send righty Jesse Hahn to the mound. Hahn came to Oakland in the trade that sent Derek Norris to San Diego.  Colby Lewis will pitch for Texas.

Game time will be 7:05 pm

Attendance was 36,067 which was a sellout.