ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ― Sonny Gray came off the mound and into the Oakland dugout after the eighth inning purposely trying to avoid contact with manager Bob Melvin.

Gray, clearly the best pitcher on this night in a matchup against Rangers ace Yu Darvish, wanted to finish what he started.

“I normally talk to him, share a laugh, make something up,” Gray said. “I put my head down and he goes, ‘How are you feeling?’ I just yelled ‘Great!’ and kept walking. ... Yeah, I wanted to go back out there.”

The right-hander did pitch the ninth, wrapping up a three-hitter for his first career complete game as the Athletics beat Texas 4-0 Monday night in Darvish’s shortest outing in the major leagues.

Gray (4-1) allowed only three singles while striking out six. He threw 73 of 108 pitches for strikes in his 16th career start.

“I felt like telling him he better getting it done under 110 (pitches), but that’s probably the wrong thing to tell a guy when he goes out for the ninth,” Melvin said with a smile. “Usually he looks at me and has a conversation with me when he’s coming in and he didn’t even look at me after the eighth.”

Texas got only one runner to third base against the 24-year-old Gray, who threw two wild pitches in the sixth after Robinson Chirinos singled.

Darvish (1-1) was gone after 3 1/3 innings, pulled after walking No. 9 batter Eric Sogard for the second time. Those were the only two walks for the right-hander, who allowed four runs and six hits while throwing 83 pitches (45 strikes). Darvish is winless his last nine home starts.

“The first few innings I thought he mixed (pitches) pretty good,” Texas manager Ron Washington said. “I thought he tried to throw everything at them. ... They found a way to put balls in play. They found a way to score runs.”

Chicago White Sox 7, Tampa Bay 3

Milwaukee 5, St. Louis 3

Colorado 8, Arizona 5

LA Angels 6, Cleveland 3

San Diego 6, San Francisco 4

Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati ppd.