Gray turns in sharp rehab outing with Sounds

Pitching in his hometown for the first time as a pro, Sonny Gray took care of business.
In his second rehab start while returning from a right shoulder strain, the A's right-hander scattered two hits and fanned seven over six scoreless frames in Triple-A Nashville's 9-2 win over New Orleans on Thursday at First Tennessee Park.

Box score
Gray (1-0) faced three over the minimum as his fastball velocity consistently hovered in the mid-90's. Outside of back-to-back singles by Steve Lombardozzi and Tomás Telis in the third inning, the 2011 first-round pick dominated for the entire start.

"He looked very strong," Sounds manager Ryan Christenson said. "It looked like all of his pitches were working. He was commanding them down in the zone. He had a sharp breaker and moved the ball around while mixing his speeds.
"Both those singles were ground balls that found holes. Really, only two balls were hit hard off of him all night."
Gray, who grew up in Nashville, was excited about donning a Sounds uniform for the first time.
"I grew up coming to Sounds games," he said on Twitter. "To wear this jersey was very cool, everything kind of came full circle tonight."
The Vanderbilt product did not allow the familiar surroundings to affect his focus once he took the field.
"I even asked him if he was able to get back to his house to stay there and he didn't," Christenson said. "He stayed in the hotel. He was treating it as all business. I think he had one person on the [guest] pass list. He was here to do what he needed to do to get himself ready to get back to Oakland. It was a business trip."
Since opening his rehab stint five days ago in Class A Advanced Stockton, Gray is 2-0 and has given up three hits without a walk while striking out 13 over 11 scoreless frames.
The Vanderbilt product received some early support from A's top prospectFranklin Barreto. The hot-hitting infielder ripped his fourth home run of the season to lead off the bottom of the first and later drew a pair of walks and scored a run. Ranked as MLB.com's No. 47 overall prospect, he has a seven-game hitting streak -- going 12-for-28 in that span -- since a 5-for-32 slump in the nine games that preceded it.

"I love seeing when he's swinging the bat the way he is," Christenson said. "The difference between him having success and struggling is simply his strike-zone discipline. He laid off some tough pitches. He worked a good at-bat his first at-bat when he hit the home run with two strikes. He had a couple walks, which is always a good thing to see with him."

Oakland's No. 21 prospect Joey Wendle tripled, doubled and drove in three runs for Nashville. Mark Canha and Ryan Lavarnway both went deep.
New Orleans starter Justin Nicolino (0-2) was tagged with the loss after surrendering two runs on three hits and two walks while striking out three over five innings.
Telis plated two runs for the Baby Cakes.