The plan in the offseason wasn’t for Sonny Gray to take over as the staff ace after only 10 career starts.  Thanks to an injury to presumed opening day starter Jarrod Parker he was thrust into the role, and other than struggles with control he handled it remarkably.

I am admittedly a huge Gray fan.  I’ve been following his career since the day he was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the first round of the 2011 draft, but even putting all of my bias aside what he did on Monday night was fantastic.  Over six innings Gray fanned seven batters, walked three, gave up five hits and allowed zero runs.  That’s a really good start for anyone, but for a kid making only his 11th career start in front of a sold out crowd it was fantastic.

He is starting to gain a reputation for pitching well in big games after outperforming Justin Verlander in game two of the NLDS against a potent Detroit Tigers offense, and pitching well enough in game five, but was outperformed by Verlander in that game.  On those nights Gray was nerves of steel and performed like a veteran beyond his years.  On Monday, though, the nerves seemed evident.

The first inning is where the nerves, and maybe the long layoff from serious ball, really shined through.  He could not find the strike zone consistently and walked the first two batters putting him in trouble early with two on and no outs.  He quickly regained his composure striking out Jason Kipnis before inducing two ground balls to end the inning.

The next two innings went without a hiccup, but in the fourth he again got in trouble.  He walked the leadoff batter of the inning, third baseman Carlos Santana, and that was followed up by a double from outfielder Michael Brantley.  With runners on second and third with no outs it looked as if the Indians would strike first, but Gray struck out designated hitter Ryan Raburn, fielded a ground ball that led to Santana out at home and then induced a ground out to end the inning.

The fifth was quick, but in his sixth and final inning Gray again got into trouble.  He got a quick foul out but a double by Brantley followed by a single by Rayburn there were runners on the corners with only one out.  Another ground ball right back to Gray led to another play at the plate for the second out and Gray finished the night off with his seventh strikeout of the night.

While his night wasn’t as impressive as his eight shutout innings in game two of the NLDS against the Tigers it was everything you would hope for and more out of a 24-year-old making his first opening day start.