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OAKLAND, Calif. -- Less than eight months after finishing third in voting for the AL Cy Young award, Athletics ace Sonny Gray is mired in the longest slump of his career.There is little indication that things are going to get better any time soon, either.Gray lost his sixth consecutive decision after blowing an early three-run lead and the Athletics offense was held to one hit over the final seven innings of a 7-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.This hasnt been his best year and hell figure it out and hell get better as the year goes on, As manager Bob Melvin said. Theres always going to be a year thats as not good as other years. So far this is the one for him. Hes been good for us.Gray was coming off two fairly decent starts before blowing up against Pittsburgh in the Pirates first trip to the Oakland Coliseum since June 27, 2010.Gray (3-7) gave up seven runs, hit a batter and threw two wild pitches in six innings while losing his sixth consecutive decision. The right-hander, third in the 2015 AL Cy Young voting, is winless since April 22.Once I got to two outs, I just wasnt able to get them out, Gray said. There were times, like in the sixth where I got two quick outs, I have to be able to shut that inning down and get back out there for the seventh . and not hit a guy and walk another. It just escalated from there.Jody Mercer homered and had an RBI single to help Pittsburgh rally from three runs down to beat. Matt Joyce added two hits, Josh Harrison drove in two runs while Andrew McCutcheon doubled and scored on a wild pitch to help the Pirates to their first win in their history at the Coliseum and just their second in 13 games between the two franchises.They did it by taking advantage of another shaky outing by Gray (3-7).We just stayed the course, Harrison said. We just put together some good at-bats as a team and it wasnt easy on him.Marcus Semien hit his 17th home run of the season for Oakland.Pirates starter Jeff Locke (8-5) also struggled early but retired the final nine batters he faced to win his third straight. He gave up three runs over five innings with three walks and three strikeouts.Three relievers combined to retire the final 12 batters and complete the four-hitter.Mercer homered in the third and added an RBI single as part of a two-run fifth.Harrisons two-out, two-run double in the sixth put the Pirates up 7-3.ALL-STAR PUSHSemiens home run was his fifth in nine games, padding his AL-leading total among shortstops. Melvin thinks Semiens offensive surge should be good enough to earn the young shortstop a trip to the All-Star game in San Diego later this month. Hopefully that merits some consideration going forward, Melvin said. You cant ignore the numbers. Not only is he doing it all offensively, he doing defensively too. He just maturing.LINEUP SHUFFLEJed Lowrie had decent results while batting leadoff for the first time this season. He drew a walk from Locke in the first before Semien homered on a 3-2 pitch. Oaklands second baseman added an RBI double in the second to make it 3-0.TRAINERS ROOMAthletics: Infielder Tyler Ladendorf was recalled from Triple-A Nashville before the game. Left-hander Dillion Overton, the losing pitcher against San Francisco on Thursday, was optioned down. Overton went 1-1 with an 11.42 ERA in two starts.UP NEXTPirates: Right-hander Chad Kuhl (1-0) pitches against Oakland on Saturday in his second career start in the majors after beating Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers in his debut.Athletics: Rich Hill is expected to come off the disabled list to start against Pittsburgh. The left-hander had been out since May 30 with a strained groin. Kansas City Royals Pro Shop . The injury bothered Bledsoe in the Suns victory over the Clippers on Monday and he sat out the teams home loss to Memphis on Thursday night. Cheap Royals Jerseys . What general manager Dave Nonis called "short and productive" negotiations ended with Kessel signing a US$64-million, eight-year contract on Tuesday. https://www.cheaproyals.com/ .2 billion agreement with Rogers Communications for the leagues broadcast and multimedia rights. Fake Royals Jerseys . After a replay, the winner will meet Sunderland in the quarterfinals. Sagbo did well to control Sone Alukos right cross and fire past Brighton goalkeeper Peter Brezovan. Aluko was making his first start in four months after recovering from an Achilles injury. Wholesale Royals Jerseys . What general manager Dave Nonis called "short and productive" negotiations ended with Kessel signing a US$64-million, eight-year contract on Tuesday. When ESPNs Sports Analytics Team rebuilt its expected points model in the offseason, one of the new features that was built in was the ability to adjust the expected points added (EPA)?values based on the type of play that was called. This means we can fairly compare the results of plays against similar plays -- that is, to compare run plays to other run plays and not against passing plays. This adjustment is useful when comparing team running games to one another.Teams almost universally run too often, which generally makes running plays have negative EPA. This is a consequence of a league-wide miscalculation and not the fault of running backs or other players who are only doing their best when called upon. Expected points also allows us to better contextualize a players contributions compared to yards, as it accounts for the down, distance, yard line and time remaining. This means a 4-yard gain on a third-and-3 is immensely more valuable in terms of EPA than a 9-yard gain on third-and-15, despite being worth only one-third as many yards. In short, its a measure of a teams scoring potential throughout a drive. From a running bbacks perspective, it is how much his teams scoring potential changes on his carries.dddddddddddd Unlike with QBR, there is no division of credit among players.This may be surprising, as Ezekiel Elliott of the Cowboys has outrushed the Dolphins Jay Ajayi by 245 yards (891 to 646), but the yards Ajayi is gaining have helped the Dolphins improve their scoring potential more than Elliotts have. That isnt to say Elliott has racked up a bunch of meaningless yards, but Ajayi has been particularly efficient, evidenced by his league-leading 5.98 yards per carry. He also owns the carry on which his team gained the most EPA so far this season -- his 62-yard touchdown to salt the game away against Pittsburgh in Week 5.Why is that run more valuable than some others that were longer? Largely because it came with only 1:01 left in the game, which meant the Steelers wouldnt have much time to respond, and enhances the value of scoring the touchdown.For more on EPA and other NFL metrics, check out ESPN.com/Analytics ' ' '