By: Eric He

ANAHEIM — Sonny Gray made his return to the mound and threw a scoreless inning on Wednesday night, but the A’s fell 8-6 to the Angels at Angel Stadium.

An 8-run fourth inning by the Angels making the difference.

Ross Detwiler, who replaced Gray in the second inning, was charged with all 8 runs and a 2-0 A’s lead turned into a blowout for the home team rather quickly.

It started with Andrelton Simmons knocking in Jefry Marte with a single to right to cut the lead to 2-1. After a double by Jett Bandy to center field, Los Angeles evened the score when Danny Valencia couldn’t handle a ground ball hit to third, and Simmons crossed home plate to tie the game. And the next batter, Shane Robinson, ripped a double down the left field line to plate two more and give the Angels a 4-2 lead.

A’s manager Bob Melvin thought Detwiler looked good in his first couple of innings.

“Early on, it looked like he had good stuff,” he said. “Usually you can tell when he’s on. He had good movement, good mix right away and then got some balls up, got some funky counts.”

Melvin then went out to the mound to check in on Detwiler, but the lefty promptly allowed a 2-run home run to Kole Calhoun on the very next pitch. Chris Smith relieved Detwiler, but Smith walked in a run with the bases loaded and the Angels scored once more on an error by catcher Bruce Maxwell. In all, 8 runs crossed the plate in a disaster of an inning for Oakland.

“The Calhoun [home run] was the one that really hurt,” Melvin said. “Coming in and not being the starter … He’s relieved and started for us and shouldn’t have been an issue.”

The A’s did come back with four unanswered runs, as Khris Davis drilled his 41^st home run of the season in the sixth and Marcus Semien hit a 2-run blast in the eighth to cut the deficit to 8-6.

“That’s a big blow for us right there where we feel like we’re back in the ball game,” Melvin said. “[Angels closer Andrew Bailey] wasn’t available today and we thought going into the ninth, we had a chance.”

But they could not duplicate that success in the ninth, as the A’s went down 1-2-3 to end the game.

The A’s jumped on Angels’ starter Alex Meyer right off the bat, taking a 1-0 lead three batters into the game on back-to-back doubles by Stephen Vogt and Ryon Healy, who just missed a home run in center field. Later in the inning, Yonder Alonso singled to right to bring Healy home after Calhoun bobbled the ball in the outfield.

As for Gray, he was satisfied with his performance. He pitched around a leadoff single in the first inning before being taken out with 18 pitches thrown. Detwiler replaced him to start the second.

“It was an inning but honestly I felt like I could’ve went longer,” Gray said. “I hadn’t thrown an inning in more than two months. I was little nervous before the game.”

Gray has been bottled up by injury and has struggled this season, coming into the game with a 5-11 record and a 5.74 ERA in 21 starts. He went on the disabled list on Aug. 7^th with inflammation in his right elbow and forearm.

“That’s our guy,” Melvin said. “Just for us to know as a team, he went out there and was healthy, looked like the old Sonny — psychologically, it was good for our ballclub.”

The A’s head to Seattle tomorrow to face the Mariners their final series of the season.