Gray, Manaea go 3 2/3 scoreless; Rox rally

MESA, Ariz. -- Neither Jon Gray nor Sean Manaea gave up a run Tuesday, as the Rockies used a four-run ninth inning to take down the A's, 4-3, at Hohokam Stadium.
Manaea gave up seven hits and struck out two, but he also did not allow a run in his 3 2/3 innings. It was the third time this spring that Manaea has thrown more than two innings, and in all three outings, he's allowed one run or fewer. The 25-year-old left-hander is a virtual lock for a spot in the A's Opening Day rotation.
"It wasn't my best day for sure, but you're going to have those during the season, and just putting up zeros when I didn't have my best stuff was huge," Manaea said. "My slider definitely wasn't working. I don't know if it was mentally or what, but I don't think I threw one for a strike today. That and fastball command; I wasn't locating at all."
Gray, in line to start on Opening Day for the Rockies, held the A's to one hit in 3 2/3 innings and struck out six. His Cactus League ERA is now 1.17 through three appearances.
• Gray annoyed by walks in scoreless outing

The A's put the game's first runs on the board through Josh Phegley's one-out RBI single in the fifth inning. Phegley drove in Matt Olson, who led the inning off with a ground-rule double. Jed Lowrie and Matt Joyce also had RBIs in the frame against Rockies reliever Jeff Hoffman.
Sean Doolittle made his spring debut for the A's, and the left-hander induced three flyouts in a perfect sixth inning. Fellow relievers Ryan Madson and John Axford also threw scoreless innings for Oakland.
• Doolittle happy with scoreless spring debut
Anthony Bemboom started the Rockies' ninth-inning rally with a two-run homer to right-center, his second of the spring. The Rockies scored the tying and go-ahead runs with two outs on RBI singles by Mike Tauchman and Sam Hilliard, who is the Rockies' No. 30 prospect according to MLBPipeline.com.
"It is an exhibition game, but it's good for a young pitcher like [Matt] Carasiti to come into a big league game and get a save," Rockies manager Bud Black said. "It's good for [Carlos] Estevez and [Mike] Dunn to hold the lead and keep it at 3-0, and a couple of guys who could potentially be on our Major League roster got some big hits."
Rockies Up Next:Kyle Freeland, the Rockies' first-round Draft pick in 2014 and No. 6 prospect, will make his second start and fourth Cactus League appearance on Wednesday, when Colorado hosts the Brewers in a 2:10 p.m. MT start on Gameday Audio. Greg Holland, the team's likely closer, and fellow veteran reliever Jason Motte also are slated to pitch.
A's Up Next: After an off-day on Wednesday, Andrew Triggs will make his fourth appearance and second start of the spring when the A's travel to face the Indians at 1:05 p.m. PT on Thursday on an exclusive audio webcast on athletics.com. Triggs is trying to secure a rotation spot and has allowed only one run in 7 1/3 innings this spring.
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