Lou Trivino: Reliever seeks 2018 form.

A’s reliever Lou Trivino said he was sitting in the same spot in the trainer’s room Friday and Saturday nights when Stephen Piscotty and Mark Canha hit dramatic ninthinning home runs in wins over the Giants.

“So, I mean, I don’t want to take complete credit for it,” Trivino said Sunday, “but it was mostly me.”

Trivino also had a more tangible impact in both games, pitching a scoreless inning in each. The righthander has not allowed a run in his past three outings, an encouraging sign for him after he had a 9.00 ERA through his first four. After pitching in just three of the A’s first 16 games, Trivino has appeared in four of the past six as he tries to reclaim a larger role in the bullpen.

In 2018, Trivino was one of the A’s best setup men as a rookie, compiling a 2.92 ERA in 69 games and 82 strikeouts in 74 innings. His ERA jumped to 5.25 last season. This season, the A’s have mostly avoided using him in highleverage situations, bringing him into just one game with the margin within two runs either way.

Lately, though, manager Bob Melvin said Trivino has been pitching with “confidence — and he should. You have that kind of stuff, you should be confident.”

“I think the consistent work certainly helps a guy like him,” Melvin said Sunday morning. “Because command can sometimes be an issue and when you’re out there fairly often, you know where your arm slot is. I’m really encouraged about how he’s throwing the ball, and I think he could work his way into a more prominent role at some point.”

Melvin said Trivino also appears to be benefiting from throwing more offspeed pitches. Trivino relied heavily on a fastballcutter combination the previous two seasons, but his cutter especially was less effective in 2019 as opponents slugged .447 against it, compared with .196 the season before.

Trivino said he likely “overexposed” the cutter at times last year, contributing to his struggles.

“In 2018, look, it was a good pitch,” Trivino said. “When in doubt, I threw it, and it was good. … Last year, I overexposed it a lot and all I was throwing was twoseam, cutter, twoseam, cutter. When that cutter’s not elite, last year happened.”

This season, Trivino had thrown his cutter 21.1% of the time, down from 34.2% last season, and he has used his curveball (14.1%) and changeup (7.7%) at careerhigh rates, per Fangraphs data.

“Right now, I feel like my changeup is really good out of hand. I feel I can throw my curveball for the most part where I want,” Trivino said. “I feel like I have a pretty good mix out there and feel confident.”

Trivino said he has felt “more consistent, especially (with) release point,” since an Aug. 3 outing at Seattle in which he threw a scoreless inning with two strikeouts. He has also made a point of “not thinking as much.”

“I’ve been more focused on trying to execute pitches, throwing it through the zone, just being a little more aggressive instead of thinking mechanics out there,” Trivino said.

“My arm’s been feeling good. Deliverywise, I feel really good. I feel like I’m kind of getting back to the form where I know I can be and I showed in 2018 and early 2019. So I’m just hoping that continues.”