Oakland A's spring training: Sonny Gray makes spring debut, Barry Zito pitches for 2nd time

Oakland Athletics pitcher Sonny Gray made his spring debut on Tuesday, pitching against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He faced 12 batters over 2⅓ innings, striking out two, walking none, and conceding five hits including one home run, and two earned runs.

Gray looked great in the first inning, hitting the edges of the strike zone as he demonstrated command of his breaking pitches against the Arizona Diamondbacks at HoHoKam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona.

Gray seemed to lose command in the second, getting behind in the count against Yasmany Tomas and Cody Ross. Tomas knocked a 3-0 pitch over the right field wall and Ross smoked a 2-0 double off the wall. Diamondbacks catcher Oscar Hernandez singled in Ross.

In the third, Aaron Hill reached on a base hit. After a wild pitch, Gray struck out Mark Trumbo looking to end his afternoon.

Gray said he was a bit overamped for his outing, and if he needed any more reasons for it, infant son Gunnar was in attendance.

— Carl Steward (@stewardsfolly) March 10, 2015

Barry Zito looks pretty good in 2nd spring appearance

Barry Zito entered the game in the fourth inning to a standing ovation from the HoHoKam Stadium crowd. His first pitch fastball for a strike earned a resounding cheer, and he gave the A's faithful every reason to keep on cheering in his second spring appearance, exiting to a standing ovation. Zito allowed two runs on three hits with one walk, he struck out one and faced 10 batters.

Zito tossed a 1-2-3 top of the fourth inning, inducing three ground balls. Zito made a nifty play on a dribbler between the mound and third base, retiring first baseman Danny Dorn on a bounce scooped by Ike Davis.

In the fifth, Zito continued to look sharp, inducing a grounder to short and then striking out Aaron Hill on a strikeout curveball. His only hit allowed was a seeing eye single Nick Buss just chopped past Ike Davis. Zito got the final out against Mark Trumbo when Mark Canha made a nice running catch deep in the left field corner just in foul territory.

In the sixth, the wheels started to come off, Zito got ahead of Jake Lamb but left a hanging breaking ball to be crushed over the bullpens for a solo home run. Yasmany Tomas worked a full-count walk right after. Sam Fuld was then fooled on a hit to deep left that carried in the desert air, allowing Tomas to reach third on Cody Ross's double.

Zito got out of most of the trouble when Danny Darn popped out to shallow left field. Tomas scored when Blake Lalli grounded out to shortstop Eric Sogard. Evan Scribner entered in relief of Zito, who was scheduled to make about 45 pitches this afternoon.

Zito said he lost a bit of focus on his pitches after two sterling innings, still pretty happy with outing and ready to expand pitch load.

— Carl Steward (@stewardsfolly) March 10, 2015

Melvin saw a few 86s, 87s from Zito on the radar gun, said his stuff was better today but still wants to see some consistency next time out.

— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) March 10, 2015