A’s reliever Trivino’s exciting first 24 hours in the majors
OAKLAND — A pitcher’s first big league win usually calls for a celebration, maybe a nice dinner. But Oakland A’s reliever Lou Trivino didn’t make any plans for a nice meal. All he wanted to do after his first victory _ sleep.
“I can’t wait to get a solid 15 hours,” Trivino said. “It’s been a great 24 hours. But I’m excited to go to sleep.” A great 24 hours, indeed. Trivino, 26, got the call early Tuesday morning that he was called up to Oakland. With Triple-A Nashville playing a series in Des Moines, Iowa, Trivino boarded a plane for Oakland around 7 a.m. He arrived and went straight to the Coliseum to join his new teammates before making his major league debut later that night against the Chicago White Sox.
“It was a dream come true,” Trivino said. “You dream about it for a while and you pray and hope it’s gonna happen, but once it actually happens it’s kind of a surreal thing.”
Trivino had the usual nervousness that comes with most pitchers making their debut, but giving him even more of a rush when he took the mound to begin the ninth inning was the rare packed house at the Coliseum for Tuesday’s promotion which granted fans free admission in honor of the A’s 50th anniversary of the first game ever played in Oakland.
Even with the luxury of an eight-run cushion as the A’s led 10-2, remaining calm on the mound was no easy task for Trivino.
“It was a massive crowd. That really helped the adrenaline spike up a little bit,” Trivino said before Wednesday’s game. “I was doing my best to stay calm out there. Nerves got a little bit of the best of me, but I got the butterflies out of the way and now hopefully I can have a little better of an outing than I did last night.”
It was a shaky outing. Trivino allowed two hits and a walk to load the bases, but he regrouped and finished the game by striking out the final two batters with the bases loaded, including Yoan Moncada in the last at-bat on a nasty curveball.
Over his 29 years in the big leagues as a player and coach, A’s manager Bob Melvin has seen countless players make their debuts. But despite the common occurrence, they are all unique and special to him. Trivino’s was no different.
“It can be an out of body experience. Couple that with 46,000 people there and now all of a sudden you’ve got a couple of baserunners you’ve got to work around. You find out what he’s made of,” Melvin said. “He got out of it and struck a couple of guys out. The stuff is not tough to tell, throwing 98 mph with some sink and last pitch was a breaking ball for strike three. Our expectation level of him is very high, I’m glad we were able to get him in and get his feet wet.”
After getting just over four hours of sleep following his debut, Trivino was back at the Coliseum for a noon start time against the White Sox. Trivino would get another shot, only this time in a more critical situation.
In a marathon of a day that ended up the third-longest game in Oakland history at the Coliseum, Trivino entered the game in the 11th inning of an 11-11 tie game. Pretty much the last option in the bullpen, with Melvin not wanting to use Ryan Dull after a high pitch count the night before, Trivino was tasked with keeping the White Sox in check for however long it took. He delivered.
Trivino was nearly flawless in three shutout innings, allowing just two hits and no walks with four strikeouts to keep the A’s in the game long enough for a walk-off single by Matt Olson in the bottom of the 14th.
It was a heroic effort by Trivino, capping off a first 24 hours in the big leagues which featured two appearances, four innings pitced, 74 pitches, no runs allowed, six strikeouts, a first big league win and a huge smile at the end of it all.