Sonny Gray pitches against the Rays, another great start in which he failed to gain the win. Photo: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Sonny Gray and Mark Buehrle both made bids to take over the AL Cy Young Tracker lead on Thursday as both pitched outstanding games. Gray allowed the Rays one run in eight innings of work, but left trailing 1-0. The Athletics tied the game, and eventually took the lead in extra innings, only to fall to Sean Rodriguez home run in the eleventh innings, the Rays winning 5-2.

Buehrle allowed two runs in seven innings as the Blue Jays swept the Red Sox, winning 7-2. Mark did get the win to move his record to 8-1, the most wins in the majors. Gray and Buehrle are now 1-2 in ERA, Sonny leading with a 1.99 mark, Buehrle second at 2.16.

The tracker gives the race to Gray by a nose, 29.7 points to 29.5 for Buehrle. Both leap-frogged Max Scherzer and Masahiro Tanaka, who remain close. It’s a fantastic race as we head into memorial day.

It’s important to note that the tracker tries to predict voting. It does not decide who is actually the best pitcher. fWAR has Corey Kluber, Yu Darvish, and Jon Lester tied at 2.2. Among the four top finishers predicted by the tracker, Tanaka leads with 1.9 WAR. If I had to choose between Gray and Buehrle, I’d take Buehrle, since the Rogers Center is a bit more hitter friendly than the Coliseum. We should get plenty of great pitching discussions this season from this group of starters.