Sonny Gray Deserves to Start the All-Star Game
If you’ve seen the recent All-Star voting update for the American League, you’ve seen that the Kansas City Royals’ fanbase has gone crazy voting for their guys. Eight Royals’ players lead the way at their position, and some of them make no sense, like Omar Infante over Jose Altuve, most notably. Luckily, the fans don’t vote for pitchers, or else it would just be the Royals facing the National League.
The Oakland Athletics have a pitcher who has epitimozed the term “All-Star” so far this year. Sonny Gray has not only stepped up again in the role of staff ace, but he’s become one of the game’s premier pitchers.
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For a team that has the worst winning percentage in the American League, they need pitchers to take the ball every fifth day and give them a chance to win every single time. Gray has done just that. He gives the Athletics more than enough to come away with another one in the win column every time he pitches.
Gray is the major league-leader in ERA, at 1.60. He leads the American League with a 0.930 WHIP. He’s tied for the AL lead with a .247 opponent on-base percentage, and is second in the AL with a .194 opponent batting average. Only Felix Hernandez has more wins than Gray’s eight among AL pitchers. Those aren’t just All-Star numbers, those are Cy Young Award numbers.
In his 14 starts, Gray has allowed more than two earned runs just twice. In his third start of the year, Gray allowed four runs to the Kansas City Royals, and on May 19th, the Houston Astros scored three runs. Overall, Gray has shut out opponents five times.
The Athletics are 8-6 in Gray’s starts this year, and that record could be a lot better. On April 11th, Gray was pulled from a start against the Seattle Mariners with a 2-1 lead. The A’s bullpen allowed four runs, one charged to Gray, and the Mariners won 5-4.
In the April 17th start against the Royals, Gray allowed four runs in six innings, but left the game with a 4-4 tie. The Oakland bullpen allowed two runs, and KC won 6-4.
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On May 8th, again facing the Mariners, Gray left the game with a 3-1 lead. The bullpen blew another lead for Gray, allowing three runs in what would eventually be a 4-3 Seattle win.
On May 13th against the Boston Red Sox, Gray allowed one run in seven innings. Instead of the bullpen faltering, it was the offense, as they couldn’t back Gray with any support, eventually losing 2-0.
On June 9th against the Texas Rangers, Gray allows two runs in six innings, but the offense manages to score just once. Gray took another tough-luck loss, by a 2-1 score.
By that count, Gray could be leading all of baseball with 11 wins if his bullpen held some leads behind him. Gray has really only pitched poorly, by his own standards, in two of the teams’ six losses in his starts.
As the Athletics continue to attempt to turn their season around, Gray has been the same ace pitcher start after start, pitch after pitch. As players around him continue to struggle with inconsistencies and injuries, seemingly dropping like flies, one after another, Gray keeps standing tall on the mound, doing everything in his power to put another notch in the win column.
The All-Star Game is one gigantic popularity contest, but to be selected as the starting pitcher for the Mid-Summer Classic is still a big honor. Gray has pitched like the guy who should start that game. Sonny should be lighting up the mound in Cincinnati on July 14th.