The Oakland Athletics selected Sonny Gray with the No. 18 pick back in 2011, one spot ahead of the Boston Red Sox.

Gray took the mound for Oakland at Fenway Park on Sunday.

The Red Sox had been familiar with Gray going back to his days as a high school pitcher in Smyrna, Tennessee. He went on to pitch at Vanderbilt and Boston was focused on him and Matt Barnes with the 18th pick three years ago.

Baseball America's final mock draft even had the Red Sox taking Gray.

"It's such a weird thing to go through. I do, however, [remember] after the draft was going my agent saying something and I thought the Red Sox were going to pick me at 19," he recalled. "But I went right before to Oakland."