Sonny Gray was an awkward pimple-faced high school kid when Justin Verlander made his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers back in 2005. As a baseball player and fan growing up, I am pretty sure Gray couldn't even have dreamed the reality that we saw Saturday night at O.co.
With his team down 1-0 in the series and facing the Cy Young and MVP award winner, Gray was to take to the mound in order to fend off what would have pretty much been the end of the season for the Oakland Athletics.
His response?
Gray put up eight shutout innings in an electrifying performance. Shall I say, a performance for the ages. Going strikeout for strikeout with Verlander, Gray held up through tough situation after tough situation in just his 10th career major league start. Gray struck nine batters out and allowed just four hits in a dazzling 111-pitch performance.
The 23-year old righty even showed some moxie by brushing veteran Torii Hunter back on an inside pitch. Hunter's resposne, as a seasoned pro, was to give Gray the stink eye and indicate that his head was off limits. Gray responded by striking out the former All-Star and showing amazing toughness for his first career postseason start.
In the end, Oakland tied up the series on a Stephen Vogt bases loaded single in the bottom of the ninth to give the A's a much-needed 1-0 victory.
This series now goes back to Detroit for an all-important Game 3 matchup between Anibal Sanchez of the Tigers and Jarrod Parker of the A's. In reality, this game pits Oakland's ace against the Tigers No. 3 starter, who led the American Leage in ERA during the regular season.
A win here by the A's would force Detroit to win two in a row, and one more in the not-so-friendly confines of O.co in Oakland.
That's where the story really gets started.
One of the primary fears for those around the A's heading into this five-game set was that they didn't have a true ace to go up against two No. 1 starters in Detroit. Sure Bartolo Colon finished second behind Sanchez in the AL in ERA, but it's hard to have confidence in him going up against either Verlander or Max Scherzer. We saw this story play out in an all-too-familiar way last postseason when these two teams played. Verlander dominated Oakland's offense in Game 5, while Parker just wasn't up to the task of going up against the best the game has to offer.
Gray's performance on Saturday quieted these concerns.
Assuming Oakland takes one of two in Detroit, manager Bob Melvin will have a tough decision to make for Game 5. Will he throw the veteran Colon out there or will he double down with Gray? Either way, the A's are in a much better situation for that deciding game than they were in last season when Colon was serving a suspension for PED's and Gray was just cracking the rotation in Sacramento.
Equally as important, Tigers' manager Jim Leyland will also have a decision to make. Will he keep true to his rotation and throw Scherzer out there or will he double down with Verlander?
Either way, the A's can find themselves in a solid position entering Game 5 if they're able to split in Detroit. And they have Gray to thank for that.