Umzug » streak to 99 games without one. "We stuck

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Sonny Gray came off the mound and into the Oakland dugout after the eighth inning purposely trying to avoid contact with manager Bob Melvin. Gray, clearly the best pitcher on this night in a matchup against Rangers ace Yu Darvish, wanted to finish what he started. "I normally talk to him, share a laugh, make something up," Gray said. "I put my head down and he goes, How are you feeling? I just yelled Great!" and kept walking. ... Yeah, I wanted to go back out there." The right-hander did pitch the ninth, wrapping up a three-hitter for his first career complete game as the Athletics beat Texas 4-0 Monday night in Darvishs shortest outing in the major leagues. Grey (4-1) allowed only three singles while striking out six. He threw 73 of 108 pitches for strikes in his 16th career start. "I felt like telling him he better getting it done under 110 (pitches), but thats probably the wrong thing to tell a guy when he goes out for the ninth," Melvin said with a smile. "Usually he looks at me and has a conversation with me when hes coming in and he didnt even look at me after the eighth." Texas got only one runner to third base against the 24-year-old Gray, who threw two wild pitches in the sixth after Robinson Chirinos singled. Darvish (1-1) was gone after 3 1-3 innings, pulled after walking No. 9 batter Eric Sogard for the second time. Those were the only two walks for the right-hander, who allowed four runs and six hits while throwing 83 pitches (45 strikes). Darvish is winless his last nine home starts. "The first few innings I thought he mixed (pitches) pretty good," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "I thought he tried to throw everything at them. ... They found a way to put balls in play. They found a way to score runs." Josh Donaldson had a two-run single in the third, and the As made it 4-0 an inning later when Josh Reddick had an RBI triple and came home on Daric Bartons sacrifice fly. Oakland and Texas entered tied for the AL West lead and the leagues best record at 15-10. The Rangers, shut out for the first time this season, had swept a three-game series in Oakland last week. Grey walked Rangers leadoff hitter Michael Choice, but got out of the first with a fielders choice grounder and a 4-5-3 double play with three Oakland infielders shifted to right side against Prince Fielder. "The first couple of hitters it looked like what he usually does in the first where from time to time," Melvin said. "After that it was as well of a pitched game as Ive seen in a while." Choice grounded into an inning-ending double play in the third after the bottom two batters reached base. Darvish made his 66th start for Texas since signing from Japan before the 2012 season. His shortest previous MLB outing had been four innings at Seattle his rookie season, though he went only 1 1-3 innings in Japan start in 2006. Darvish struck out four, but three of those came in the first five batters of the game. The As are 7-1 in their nine games against Darvish, who last week got a no-decision in Oakland after going six innings and leaving a 3-3 tie before Texas won 4-3. After Donaldsons big hit, a bouncer through the left side of the infield out of the reach of diving third baseman Adrian Beltre, the As had the bases reloaded on a one-out single by Brandon Moss. Moss was thrown out retreating to first on a pitch that got away from catcher Chirinos, though the runner was originally ruled safe before Rangers manager Washington challenged and got the play overturned by replay. When Moss slid back in, his foot was against first baseman Fielders foot -- and not the base -- while being tagged. Washington lost a challenge in the eighth when thought Reddick was out on a pickoff attempt diving back to first with Barton batting. Reddick was called safe, and replay confirmed the call before Barton hit a deep flyball. Centre fielder Leonys Martin made a leaping catch on the warning back and threw to first base. Reddick was initially called safe by crew chief Jeff Nelson, who then initiated a replay and changed his call for an inning-ending double play. "Thats a first, two replays with the same guy sliding into the same base," Melvin said. "Thats part of the game now." NOTES: Rangers OF Shin-Soo Choo was out of the starting lineup for the sixth consecutive game because of a left ankle sprain, but flew out as a pinch-hitter in the ninth. ... As OF Yoenis Cespedes missed his fourth game in a row (strained left hamstring). Manager Bob Melvin said its 50-50 hell be back in the starting lineup Tuesday. ... Game 2 features a standout matchup of left-handers. Oaklands Scott Kazmir (3-0, 1.62 ERA) pitches against Martin Perez (4-0, 1.42), who has thrown 26 consecutive scoreless innings his last three starts. Perez has two consecutive three-hit shutouts, the last coming Wednesday in Oakland. MLB Jerseys Outlet . -- Adrian Peterson takes a look around the league and sees big money flying everywhere. Cheap MLB Jerseys . - Ryan Spooner scored twice to lead the Boston Bruins to a 6-1 victory over the New York Islanders in a preseason game Friday night. http://www.stitchedmlbjerseys.com/. -- Adam Tambellini scored three times and set up one more as the Calgary Hitmen won their sixth in a row by crushing the host Lethbridge Hurricanes 8-1 on Saturday in Western Hockey League play. Cheap MLB Jerseys Online .The Ottawa Senators winger was relegated to a corner seat in the locker-room to allow Daniel Alfredsson to return to his regular stall one last time. China MLB Jerseys . Still, Encarnacion felt a sense of relief. He felt a pop just before crumpling to the ground after running out a groundball in the first inning of Saturdays game. It could have been worse. “Its going to take maybe two weeks,” said Encarnacion. “It depends how Im going to be and how Im going to be day after day, feeling better or not.ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Nashville Predators finished strong, even if was for naught. The Minnesota Wild are hoping this is only the start. Craig Smith had two goals and two assists, and the Predators used a second-period barrage against goalie Ilya Bryzgalov to beat the playoff-bound Wild 7-3 on Sunday. "Like the last exhibition game before the start of a season, always happy to have that one over with," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. The Wild wrapped up the first wild card spot in the Western Conference earlier in the week and had their first-round matchup with the Colorado Avalanche set before the game, so there were few motivators other than the maintenance of health and momentum and maybe a statistical milestone or two. Well, all but the momentum was accomplished. No new injuries were reported, and Jason Pominville got his 30th goal. "Obviously it wasnt pretty. It wasnt the way we want to end it and I dont want to make an excuse for it, but I think those things will happen when youre in and the other team is out, playing loose," Pominville said. For the second straight night, Nashville scored seven times. The Predators won 7-5 at Chicago on Saturday. Good way for coach Barry Trotz, the only bench boss the franchise has ever had, to go out if hes not retained. Trotz said he realized this could be his last game with the team. "If I said differently Id be lying," he said. Bryzgalov, though, didnt do himself or the Wild any good with this shaky performance, as meaningless as the game was. Bryzgalov posted back-to-back shutouts in victories over Pittsburgh and Winnipeg on April 5 and 7, but in a win over Boston he gave up three goals on 24 shots in regulation, though he was unscored upon in the shootout. Bryzgalov, acquired from Edmonton for a fourth-round draft pick, has allowed eight goals over the last 45 shots hes faced. John Curry, the fifth goalie used by the Wild this season, replaced him for the third period. Ryan Ellis, Shea Weber, Roman Josi and Smith scored consecutively in the second period to steer Bryzgalov toward the bench at the second intermission. Rich Clune had a goal in the first period, and Calle Jarnkrok and Smith scored in the final frame. Erik Haula, Jason Pominville and Zach Parise scored for the Wild,, who gave up a season-high seven goals.dddddddddddd One of the reasons the Wild were safely in, rather than scrambling to win their last game to qualify as they did last season, was the sturdiness shown by the 33-year-old Bryzgalov down the stretch with their top three goalies unavailable due to injury or illness. This was his first regulation loss in 11 starts — he went 7-1-3 — since arriving the day before the trade deadline. But this was ugly. Yeo didnt flinch, though. "Im not worried about him," the coach said, adding: "You look at tonight, and we were brutal in front of him." The Predators missed the playoffs for a second straight year, putting Trotzs future in question. "Thats not our decision to make. Theres nothing that we could do as players in this locker room. We played our hearts out for him. Hes a great coach and well see what happens," Weber said. Nashville went 9-1-2 in its final 12 games, including eight regulation wins, but finished in 10th place — three points below the cut. The Predators killed every penalty over their previous five games, a streak that ended when Parise scored his 29th goal — he missed 15 games earlier this season — early in the second period to give Bryzgalov and the Wild a 3-1 edge. Nashville also became the only team in the league this season to not allow a short-handed goal, stretching its streak to 99 games without one. "We stuck with it. You always want to go out on a good note," said Smith, who passed Weber for the team lead with 24 goals. Weber had 23 and Patric Hornqvist finished with 22. Weber tallied a career-high 56 points. "If he doesnt win the Norris this year its going to be an absolute crime," Trotz said. NOTES: With 98 points, the Wild matched their second-best record in franchise history. After going 5-14-5 on the road in last seasons lockout-abbreviated schedule, the Predators finished 19-15-7 away from home. ... Pominville became only the third different player in Wild history to hit the 30-goal mark. Marian Gaborik (five times) and Brian Rolston (three times) were the others. ... Clune was called for roughing and cross checking and slapped with a 10-minute misconduct. He finished with 166 penalty minutes this season, fourth-most in the NHL. ' ' '