Luzardo gets back to form
Jesús Luzardo had a little hiccup in his last start, with a rough outing against the Giants. On Wednesday, the A’s prized rookie was back to his expected form, befuddling the Diamondbacks with high, hard fastballs, sneaky changeups and breaking stuff on the corners.
In his fourth bigleague start, Luzardo went 61⁄3 scoreless innings and he struck out seven, both career highs, to help Oakland bounce back with a 41 victory over Arizona at a somewhat hazy Coliseum. The team monitored the air quality throughout the day because of the many regional fires, but decided against postponing the game as conditions improved in the late afternoon.
“You could definitely see the smoke and feel it when you walked out, but once I started warming up, I didn’t even notice it,” said Luzardo, who allowed four hits and two walks. He also hit a batter.
Asked earlier in the day if Luzardo might have to make
some adjustments after allowing the Giants six runs in his last outing, manager Bob Melvin said, “His stuff plays anywhere. I think it’s a little too early to talk about what adjustments he needs to make.”
Luzardo said his changeup was the best it’s been all year Wednesday, and he was happy to recover the feel for his slider, which has been missing much of the time; Melvin said the pitch looked much sharper. But everything was working well and after a rough outing by Opening Night starter Frankie Montas on Tuesday, the A’s were even more appreciative of Luzardo’s ability to work into the seventh, just the fourth time this season an Oakland starter has done so.
“He looked cool as a cucumber,” A’s DH Mark Canha said. “He’s a great young pitcher.”
Oakland’s defense picked up Luzardo the one inning he got into a little trouble; with men at first and second and no outs in the sixth, Matt Chapman scooped up a grounder by Starling Marte, stepped back toward the thirdbase bag to get the lead runner and, with his momentum going the wrong way, threw to first to get Marte, with Matt Olson making the pick to complete the double play.
“That was huge,” Luzardo said, adding of Chapman, “I let him know about 100 times that he’s the man. It saved me a lot of ptiches. It let me go back out for the next inning.”
Christian Walker than hit a drive to deep center, but that’s where Ramón Laureano plays now and he needed to make just a little leaping grab to end the inning.
Arizona starter Merrill Kelly came into Wednesday night on a nice roll, allowing just five runs total in his first four starts, and the Diamondbacks’ pitchers had stymied Oakland’s bats in Phoenix the previous two games. Oakland made Kelly work, though — he was at 86 pitches after four innings, and for the first time this season, Kelly allowed more than three runs.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the first, Robbie Grossman made sure the A’s didn’t fail to capitalize, as they did so often at Arizona, whacking a groundrule double that scored two. And in the third, Chapman doubled off the wall in center and Canha followed with a homer to left.
Grossman has become a regular contributor batting sixth for Oakland; he has 12 hits in his past 35 atbats with nine RBIs and 13 walks over the past 11 games. Melvin said he’s had a “huge impact.”
“He’s off to a great start,” Melvin said. “He’s made some adjustments, where you’re seeing him pull the ball a little bit more and hit the ball a little farther to that side of the field too . ... There will be times maybe when someone’s struggling that Robbie could hit up in the lineup like he has before, but I think he’s pretty comfortable where he is right now.”
Rookie catcher Sean Murphy extending his hitting streak to seven games, a career best, and he’s 7for20 with five walks in that span.
Melvin said the key for Murphy has been consistent atbats and with the A’s expecting to face a few lefthanders coming up and a run of night games, Murphy might catch three games in a row “which I think certainly helps,” Melvin said. “As long as he feels healthy and he has to this point ... I think he’ll get some multiple atbats and I think any young player benefits by that.”
The A’s remained in first place in the AL West, 2½ games ahead of the Astros.