Sonny Gray wins 100th start as A's beat Red Sox 8-3

OAKLAND - Jed Lowrie and Khris Davis hit first-inning homers to spoil Hector Velazquez's major league debut and the Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox 8-3 on Thursday night.

Chad Pinder added a homer in the fourth inning against Velazquez (0-1), who had a rough first start after spending his first seven years as a pro in the Mexican League.

Sonny Gray (1-1) overcame a shaky beginning to get the win in his 100th career start. After allowing two runs in a 31-pitch first, Gray settled down and gave up just one more run the rest of the way, while striking out eight in six innings.

Staked to a 2-0 lead before taking the mound in his major league debut, Velazquez fell behind just four batters into the game when he allowed a two-run homer to Lowrie and a solo shot by Davis for Oakland's first back-to-back homers of the season.

After Boston tied the game in the fourth on a solo shot by Mitch Moreland, the A's went back ahead in the bottom half when Trevor Plouffe hit an RBI double and Pinder followed with a two-run homer on the next pitch to make it 6-3.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Athletics: 1B Yonder Alonso sat out after being removed from the game Wednesday in Seattle with a sore left knee. He had an MRI on Thursday and will likely miss at least a couple of days.

CAUGHT ON BASES

A's leadoff hitter Rajai Davis had a rough night on the bases. He was caught stealing second after leading off the game with a single and then was thrown out at third trying for a triple in the third. Davis beat the throw from center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and was initially called safe. But his foot came off the base momentarily on the slide and he was tagged by Deven Marrero. The play was overturned on replay.

TOUGH UMP

Home plate umpire Marty Foster took a hard foul ball off the mask in the third inning that left him stumbling before Boston catcher Christian Vazquez steadied him. After being checked by the trainer, Foster stayed in the game.

EMPTY HOUSE

The attendance of 12,016 was the smallest for a Red Sox game in Oakland since the A's drew 8,221 for a game on May 3, 1999.

UP NEXT

Boston's Chris Sale (4-2) goes for his eighth consecutive double-digit strikeout game in the second game of the series. Sale already has one streak of eight double-digit strikeout games in a row in 2015 for the White Sox. The only other player with at least 10 strikeouts in eight consecutive starts was Pedro Martinez for Boston in 1999. Kendall Graveman (2-2) starts for the A's.