By Matthew T.F. Harrington

AP photo: Oakland A’s manager Bob Melvin pulls A’s starter Sonny Gray in the fourth inning of Friday night’s game at the Oakland Coliseum

OAKLAND, Calif. – It’s time for the Oakland Athletics to form a search party, start plastering Alameda County lamp posts with “missing” flyers and try to decipher any clues they have. Their once surefire ace, a strikeout machine, has gone missing. In his place is an impostor in a green and gold number 54 jersey dealing with more control issues parents of an unruly teenager.

Sonny Gray was knocked around then prematurely knocked out of the game by the New York Yankees in a 8-3 loss at the O.Co Coliseum Friday night for his fifth-straight start without a win. The former Cy Young candidate surrendered 5 runs, 4 earned, over a brief 3 1/3 innings to a pinstriped lineup composed of noted sluggers Aaron Hicks, Ronald Torreyes and Didi Gregorious. The 26-year-old righty threw 98 pitches, with 53 going for strikes on a night when Gray’s command was not as sharp as he’d like against the struggling Yankees (19-22).

“Early on, it was just about throwing a lot of pitches,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. “The velocity was 95 at times, probably the best velocity we’ve seen out of him. He threw some really sharp breaking balls at times.”

Gray (3-5, 6.19 ERA) was staked to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 2^nd after Billy Butler scored Matt McBride’s run-scoring single, but a struggle in the 4^th inning tilted the game towards the Bronx Bombers.

“For a while it looked like he had straightened it out,” said Melvin. “He threw a lot of pitches, was just missing with pitches, got his pitch count up. Then in the 4^th it wasn’t as good. We’ll continue to work and try to find it.”

Gray started the inning promising enough, punching out Starlin Castro but a free pass to Hicks slowed the starter’s momentum. Gregorius singled, then Torreyes tripled home both base runners. Jacoby Ellsbury reached base on catcher’s interference then advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Torreyes also scored on the play for a 3-0 Yankees lead.

“The 4th got a little out of hand,” said Melvin. “They got some hits then he had trouble locating the strike zone.”

Brett Gardner walked to continue the Yankees rally, then he and Ellsbury advanced a base each on a second wild pitch in the inning. Designated Hitter Carlos Beltran chased the runners in and chased Gray from the game after roping a two-run double for the 5-1 lead. Coco Crisp got a late jump on the drive to center field, turning what appeared to be a fly out into the dagger for the A’s (19-24).

“Sometimes a ball hit right at you on a line, especially when the wind’s blowing at you,” said Melvin. “Sometimes though are tough to judge. It just got over his head.”

Two innings later the Yankees would add on another run off reliever Ryan Dull and would tack on two insurance runs in the top of the 9^th on a two-run Ellsbury triple off Andrew Triggs.

While Gray continued to struggle, opposing pitcher CC Sabathia (3-2, 3.41) meanwhile continued his string of vintage performances. The portly port-sider fired 6 innings of 3-hit ball while striking out a season-high 8 batters. The Vallejo native yielded exactly 3 runs in his first 4 starts, but in his latest pair his allowed just the lone run over 13 innings.

“He used to be just three pitches,” said Melvin of Sabathia’s arsenal. “Now it’s up to 5. He’s not throwing as hard as he used to but he’s tough to think along with now with the cutter and slider, changeup. He’s got an arsenal and he’s figured how to pitch with it and keep us off balance.

With Sabathia out of the game in the 7^th inning, Coco Crisp singled home a run off reliever Kirby Yates to trim the deficit to 6-2 at the time. Yates pitched two innings, while Chasen Shreve allowed a leadoff triple to Billy Burns to open the 9^th then yielded an RBI groundout for Jake Smolinski to wrap up the scoring.

With the current number one starter struggling Friday night, the consensus ace-in-waiting takes his turn on the mound Saturday afternoon. The Throwin’ Samoan Sean Manaea takes the hill fresh off his first career win, 6 2/3 inning 1 run performance against the Texas Rangers. Prior to that, Manaea had allowed 16 runs over his previous 3 starts. He’ll be opposed by the Yankees rotation head Masahiro Tanaka. First pitch is at 1:05 pm for the Coliseum.