OAKLAND, Calif. -- Sonny Gray spent the past few days with Oakland pitching coach Curt Young, making subtle adjustments to his delivery. Grey wont reveal exactly what he and Young worked on. Suffice to say, the Athletics young staff ace is pleased with the results. Brandon Moss hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the fifth inning, and Gray bounced back from two sub-par outings to lead Oakland over the Texas Rangers 4-2 Wednesday, giving the Athletics (44-28) the best record in the majors. "Overall it was a pretty good outing," said Gray, who had won just two of eight starts before going seven innings against Texas and striking out seven. "I dont think there really is a difference other than I was able to make pitches," he said. "Thats probably it. People sometimes forget that baseball is a pretty hard game and theres going to be some rough patches that youre going to go through." Grey (7-3) bounced back nicely from his recent rough stretch. The right-hander needed only 31 pitches to get through the first three innings, then struck out Brad Snyder on a high 95 mph fastball to end the fourth with runners at second and third. Grey also got help from left fielder Yoenis Cespedes, who made a leaping catch at the warning track to rob Adrian Beltre of extra bases two batters before Snyder struck out. His lone mistake came in the fifth when Texas loaded the bases with two outs. Gray walked two and gave up an infield single before Shin-Soo Choos two-run single made it 2-2. "Its just balance for him," As manager Bob Melvin said. "He knows his delivery (and) his mechanics pretty well, and Curts terrific at pointing out subtle things. There are a couple things hes been working on." Cespedes and Josh Donaldson each had two hits for the As. Oakland has won four of five and is a season-high 16 games over .500. Their record is one game better than cross-bay rival San Francisco. "Anytime in the season that you can say you have the best record in baseball, its satisfying," Melvin said. "But theres a lot of baseball yet to be played. At least for the time being it feels good." Luke Gregerson pitched the eighth, and Sean Doolittle worked the ninth for his ninth save. Nick Tepesch (2-3) went five innings for Texas. Choo drove in both runs for the Rangers. "We have to get more than five innings out of our starting pitching and we have to have a shutdown inning after we score runs," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "Somehow that (Oakland) lineup is always functioning. Somebody is always having a good day." Melvin shuffled his lineup and didnt start centre fielder Coco Crisp and second baseman Eric Sogard. Oaklands offence didnt miss a beat. John Jaso replaced Crisp in the leadoff spot and knocked in the As first run with a double in the third. Craig Gentry, who filled in at centre field, added two hits and scored a run. Second baseman Alberto Callaspo also had two hits. That was enough for Gray, who gave up two runs and six hits. He improved to 8-2 with a 1.90 ERA in 13 career starts against teams from within the As division. "He was keeping us off balance," said outfielder Alex Rios, who doubled off Gray in the fourth. "He managed his slider well. and his fastball had good velocity. He was locating it well." Cespedes scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the inning. He singled off Tepesch and scored on Moss double to right, barely beating the throw home with a headfirst slide. After Donaldson singled Moss to third, Stephen Vogt hit a short sacrifice fly to left to put Oakland up 4-2. Tepesch remained winless since May 26. He allowed nine hits over five innings with two walks and one strikeout. NOTES: Doolittle hasnt allowed a run in 22 1/3 innings, the longest active streak in the AL. ... Crisp was given a normal day off. ... Sogard pinch-ran after Callaspo singled in the ninth. ... Rangers 3B Luis Sardinas singled in the third to extend his career-best hitting streak to seven games. ... Texas LHP Joe Saunders (0-2), who will pitch the opener against the Angels on Friday, has allowed two earned runs or fewer in four starts since coming off the DL. ... Oakland LHP Scott Kazmir (8-2), who opens the series against Boston on Thursday, has a 0.95 ERA over his previous four starts. Kevin Love Jersey . Reyes, 26, was traded from Atlanta to Toronto in July 2010 and spent the remainder of the season in the minors. He began 2011 in the majors and made 20 starts with the Blue Jays, going 5-8 with a 5.40 earned run average before he was waived on Aug. Matthew Dellavedova Jersey .com) - Wayne Simmonds, Scott Laughton and Jakub Voracek each posted a goal and an assist as the Philadelphia Flyers thumped the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-1, on Saturday. https://www.thecavalierslockerroom.com/J...Edition-Jersey/. Basketball fans around the globe will be watching as Kobe Bryant makes his season debut - 240 days after tearing his left Achilles - against Toronto, a team he has used as his own personal punching bag. Dylan Windler Jersey . -- Two nights after losing to the Eastern Conferences worst team, the Phoenix Coyotes handled the best. Terrell Brandon Cavaliers Jersey . New York City FC introduced Frank Lampard in Brooklyn on Thursday after signing the 36-year-old former Chelsea midfielder to a two-year contract.Max Scherzer will pitch the most important game of his career Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park in Boston. Its Game 6 of the ALCS, and if the Tigers lose, their season is over, and the Red Sox go to the World Series for the third time in 10 seasons searching for their third title over that span. If Scherzer and the Tigers win, it will force a Game 7 on Sunday night, with Justin Verlander on the hill against John Lackey. The interesting story is how Scherzer got to Detroit in the first place. In 2009, Scherzer was with the Arizona Diamondbacks, battling for the number five starter job with Yusmeiro Petit. Yes thats the same Petit, who came within one out of a perfect game, for the Giants back on September 6th against the Diamondbacks. Heading into that season, the D-Backs were a highly touted outfit. In fact, I found an old article from the Bleacher Report, that praised their starting rotation of Brandon Webb, Daren Haren, Doug Davis , Jon Garland and either Scherzer or Petit as the best in the National League West and arguably the tops in all the Majors. That year, Arizona was 70-92 and was needless to say a huge disappointment. Clearly a shake-up was in order. So on December 8, 2009, Arizona, Detroit and the New York Yankees concocted a monster three team deal involving seven players. Initially, it seemed the Yanks got the best of the swap, in acquiring up and coming slugging centre fielder Curtis Granderson, from the Tigers. Arizona landed two veteran arms in Edwin Jackson from Detroit and Ian Kennedy from the Yankees. Kennedy gave the D-backs one incredible season, but ultimately got traded to San Diego this season. Detroit picked up four young players a couple of which were highly rated prospects. They got centre fielder Austin Jackson and lefty reliever Phil Coke from the Yankees, and a couple of pitchers from Arizona, Daniel Schlereth and yes Max Scherzer. The ddeal didnt seem to help Arizona at all.dddddddddddd The next season (2010) they tumbled to 65-97, and in-season replaced manager A.J Hinch with current skipper Kirk Gibson. The Yankees got two solid seasons out of Granderson and an injury plagued 2013. Now Granderson is set to enter free agency and is by no means a lock to return to the "Pinstripes". What do the Tigers have? Well they beat the Yankees a year ago to make it to the World Series where they ultimately lost to the Giants. Theyve got a right hander in Scherzer, whos poised to win his first Cy Young Award, a starting centre fielder in Jackson and serviceable reliever in Coke. Now with Scherzer pitching Saturday, theyve at least still got a chance to go to the World Seriesfor the third time in eight seasons. Sometimes, it takes a few years to analyze a trade, but clearly GM Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers won this one. As a bit of a footnote, to this story, I saw one rumour, this week, that after the season, Detroit might actually consider trading Scherzer in the off-season. That knocked me back a few steps, but Scherzer is eligible for arbitration after this season, and can become a free agent in 2015. Maybe the Tigers just dont think they can afford to have Scherzer and Justin Verlander on the same staff, or perhaps, they just want to keep growing and replenishing their system, the way they did with that epic three team deal in December of 2009. Stay tuned. A couple of former Blue Jays of World Series vintage were in the news this week. Darnell Colesa valuable bench player on the 93 team, was promoted by Milwaukee to manage their Triple-Afarm club at Nashville. Turner Ward a versatile outfield back-up with the club in 92 and 93 is the assistant hitting coach with Arizona. There is a chance he could be in for a promotion, since Don Baylor left the D-backs to become the hitting coach with the Angels. Ward was a huge fan favourite in Toronto. ' ' '