Major League Baseball

Young Graveman impressing A's with maturity, development on mound

Published Jun. 3, 2015 3:09 p.m. ET

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Young Oakland Athletics right-hander Kendall Graveman was one of the cornerstones of the off-season trade that sent Josh Donaldson to Toronto, as general manager Billy Beane and the A's saw promise in the 24-year-old as a potential rotation strength for the future.

He flashed some signs of that potential on Tuesday night: after allowing three runs to the Detroit Tigers in the fourth inning, Graveman appeared lost. His command was nonexistent and he quickly found himself on the wrong end of a 3-0 score. 

Despite the rough inning, Graveman then held the Tigers scoreless for two more frames and gave the A's time to come back, which they did in the late innings. 

His ability to buckle down and limit the damage impressed his manager, Bob Melvin, who told MLB.com's Jane Lee just how close he was to removing Graveman from the game during the fourth: "I was one batter away from taking him out several different times, so to be able to persevere and get through six innings with three runs, we'll take that. He's shown some grit in games like this."

His catcher, Stephen Vogt, agreed with Melvin's assessment of Graveman's grit: "I think he's definitely gaining more confidence when he gets into trouble," said Vogt. "He could've very easily regressed back to old habits, or old memories, and he didn't."

Melvin added that he's been impressed with Graveman's development on the mound: "Probably early in the season, he wasn't able to do that. Now he's feeling good about himself to be able to get big outs when he has to to stay in the game."

On the year, Graveman is now 3-2 with a 5.56 ERA, though he's only allowed six earned runs in 17 2/3 IP over three starts since returning from Triple-A Nashville. 

(h/t MLB.com)

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