Triggs dominant in A’s sweep of Orioles; Red-hot Giants sweep 1st-place Braves
OAKLAND – Andrew Triggs continued what has been a dominant run by A’s pitching with a careerbest performance.
Triggs bounced back from a poor start his last time out by allowing just one run on two hits with no walks and nine strikeouts over seven strong innings of work in Sunday’s 2-1 victory to cap off a three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles in front of 17,112 fans at the Coliseum. The seven innings and nine strikeouts both matched career-highs for Triggs as he allowed no walks for the first time this season.
“I’ve been frustrated with the walks,” Triggs said of his walk totals in past starts this season. “I didn’t feel like I was walking as many guys as I was. I went back and looked at how many of those walks have scored, so you really want to take your chances by filling up the zone and let your defense work.”
The command was perhaps even more impressive than the high number of strikeouts racked up by Triggs.
After allowing four runners to reach base on walks or hit by pitches his previous start in Seattle, Triggs got ahead in the count much more often Sunday, leading to more success as he finished the day with 96 pitches and improved to 3-1 with his ERA now at 4.41 on the season.
“He went deeper in a game than we’ve seen him go for the most part,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Kept them off balance on Andrew Triggs of the Oakland Athletics pitches against the Baltimore Orioles during Sunday’s game at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland.
both sides of the plate with a good sink and slider. Excellent performance.”
The nine strikeouts by Triggs made it 40 by A’s pitchers in the series, an Oakland record for most strikeouts over a threegame series.
GIANTS 4, BRAVES 3 ATLANTA – With the National League’s highest-scoring offense and a young roster oozing with potential, the Atlanta Braves hardly looked like a mess entering the weekend.
Tell that to the Giants, who broke out the brooms anyway and swept away the first place team in the National League East with a 4-3 win on Sunday.
In a game featuring a pair of rookie pitchers who had combined for three career starts before Sunday’s series finale, Giants southpaw Andrew Suarez, 25, outdueled Braves right-hander Mike Soroka, 20, to pick up his first career victory
The Giants’ sweep marked the club’s first since taking three in a row from the Pittsburgh Pirates from June 30-July 2, 2017. Though the Giants dominated the Braves starters all weekend, the pitching staff allowed just six earned runs in a series against an offense that entered on a hot streak and has thrived in a hitterfriendly home ballpark.
With 5 and 1/3 innings of one-run ball, Suarez led the Giants to their seventh win in eight games and became the fourth different rookie pitcher to claim a victory this season, joining relievers Roberto Gomez, Reyes Moronta and Pierce Johnson.
The only contest the Giants dropped this week was Suarez’s last outing on the mound, a 3-2 defeat against the Padres which featured a go-ahead ninth inning home run by Eric Hosmer off closer Hunter Strickland.
On Sunday, it was the Georgia native Strickland who nearly blew another Suarez’ start and allowed two runs in the ninth and let the game-tying run reach third base before securing his eighth save of the year.