Sonny Gray lowered his ERA to a major league-best 1.60 with 7 2-3 impressive innings and the Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-1 Sunday.
Eric Sogard drove in three runs and the A's capitalized on three errors.
Gray (8-3) yielded an unearned run and five hits, struck out nine and did not walk a batter. The right-hander has issued only nine walks in his last eight starts after giving up career-high seven on May 3 at Texas.
Gray is 5-1 with a 2.22 ERA in eight career starts against the Angels, including back-to-back wins in April.
Matt Shoemaker (4-5) was charged with four runs - three earned - and six hits in 5 2-3 innings. He is 0-4 with a 5.17 ERA in six home starts this season, including a 6-3 loss to the A's on April 20, when he worked three-plus innings.
The A's scored an unearned run in the second after errors by second baseman Johnny Giavotella and catcher Chris Iannetta.
Iannetta fumbled a squeeze bunt up the third base line by Sogard, and Ben Zobrist skipped around the catcher's attempted tag after he finally got control of the ball.
Josh Reddick increased the Athletics' margin to 2-0 in the third with a bloop single.
The Angels scored in the fourth after shortstop Marcus Semien made his major league-worst 21st error this season. A wild pitch by Gray and a passed ball by Stephen Vogt set up an RBI single by Albert Pujols, the Angels' first hit.
Pujols's RBI was the 1,637th of his 15-year career, surpassing Ernie Banks for sole possession of 29th place on the all-time list. The three-time NL MVP, who homered in a 1-0 win Saturday night, has 17 RBIs in his last 16 games, along with 10 home runs.
UP NEXT
Athletics: RHP Jesse Hahn (3-5) opposes Tyson Ross on Monday night in the first of four consecutive games against the Padres, who will host the first two before the scene switches to Oakland. Hahn spent his rookie season with San Diego before coming to the Bay Area last December in a multiplayer trade that sent C Derek Norris to the Padres. The A's have committed 11 errors this season with Hahn on the mound, resulting in eight unearned runs.
Angels: RHP Jered Weaver (4-6) gets the assignment against Robbie Ray on Monday night in the first of four straight games against the Arizona Diamondbacks - the first two being played in Anaheim. Weaver is 16-5 with a 2.68 ERA in 31 career interleague starts, including a 12-3 win against the D-backs at Chase Field on June 26, 2009 - his only other outing against them.
