A’s defeat Diamondbacks for third straight victory

Oakland chases former Giant Bumgarner on the way to win

Oakland A’s right-handed reliever J.B. Wendelken fidgeted with his glove as he paced slowly across the right side of the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning on Monday night at Chase Field.

Wendelken, who was making his seventh appearance of the season in Oakland’s 11th game, had just allowed back-to-back two-out base hits to the Arizona Diamondbacks, both of which produced runs. By the time A’s manager Bob Melvin came out to retrieve Wendelken, his team’s three-run lead had shrunk to one.

It was a late-game uprising that easily could have allowed momentum to shift to the Arizona dugout. But three mid-90s fastballs and a sharp slider from A’s lefty reliever Jake Diekman thwarted the Diamondbacks’ rally. Oakland went on to win Monday’s

series opener 9-5 to improve to 4-7 on the season. The win was Oakland’s third straight and fourth in its past five games.

“I’m perfectly fine with pitching the seventh or if one day it’s the ninth,” Diekman said before Monday’s game.

Between Diekman and right-hander Lou Trivino, the back end of the A’s bullpen shined bright against the Diamondbacks in the first of two games in Arizona. Diekman didn’t allow a base runner in 1 1/3 innings and Trivino allowed one hit in his one inning.

“He’s feeling pretty confident as he should,” Melvin said of Trivino, the new A’s closer, before Monday’s game.

It wasn’t just Trivino and Diekman who kiboshed the Diamondbacks’ comeback attempt, though. Oakland’s offense piled six runs on Arizona starter Madison Bumgarner in his 4.2-inning outing and scored three more between the eighth and ninth innings.

The A’s already had a rough sketch of the road to victory against Bumgarner before Monday’s game started. It was a plan that developed in part when they faced the former Giants

ace in Cactus League play, Melvin said, noting the A’s expected a heavy dose of cutters on the inner half of the plate accompanied by an occasional backdoor breaking ball.

“He’s going to try and get you to swing at balls off the inside corner of the plate,” Melvin said. “That’s what he’s been doing forever.”

It was enough foresight to allow the A’s to pummel the burly southpaw. Left fielder Mark Canha led the game off with a double down the left-field line and scored after he stole third and advanced home on an RBI ground out from A’s second baseman Jed Lowrie. Lowrie picked up a two-run double two innings later, giving him the team lead in RBIs (eight).

“We had a good approach,” Melvin said. “Try to push him out over the plate a little bit and not let him bully you inside.”

With his team leading 5-2 in the top of the fifth inning, Oakland third baseman Matt Chapman scorched a home run to deep left field, his second of the season.

In total, the A’s tagged Bumgarner for seven hits, six earned runs and three walks. Bumgarner was pinned with his second loss of the season and after three starts, has an ERA of 11.20.

“I thought we did a really good job,” Lowrie said. “Canha set the tone right from the start and we were able to piecemeal a run together in the first inning and set a good tone. The rest just kind of fell into place.”

A’s starting pitcher Chris Bassitt was effective on Monday night, too. He allowed just two earned runs on two hits and five walks in five innings en route to his first victory of the season. His fastball was lively and his low-70s curveball induced multiple swings and misses from his opponent.

Melvin was particularly encouraged by Bassitt’s ability to battle through a minor shoulder ailment suffered on a check-swing in his first at-bat.

“He had to pitch through some adversity with his command and his shoulder bothering him a little bit,” Melvin said. “He gutted it out through five innings and got a win. Give him a lot of credit for performing on a night that he probably didn’t have his best stuff.”