Graveman (1-1) surrendered three earned runs on four hits and a walk over 3.2 innings in Monday's 3-1 Cactus League loss to the Reds. He also recorded a strikeout.
Graveman's role in the Oakland rotation takes on additional importance in the wake of ace Sonny Gray's lat injury, and he could well take the latter's place as the Opening Day starter. He'd looked up to the task through his first pair of spring starts and an exhibition appearance against Team Italy, but Monday's outing proved to be a different story. Graveman was scored on for the first time this spring courtesy of Brandon Dixon, who hit a second-inning sacrifice fly and then launched a two-run homer to left in the fourth on Graveman's next-to-last pitch of the afternoon. Despite the hiccups Monday, Graveman did manage to make a sizable leap in pitch count and also made an immediate assessment on the source of his troubles. "I didn't locate as well as the game went on ... and one bad pitch there at the end, otherwise you leave feeling pretty good about it," Graveman said.