A’s: AL West title seems inevitable after Bassitt cruises against S.F.
Way back before spring training started in February, in the Before Times, the A’s were a strong postseason pick, and now, after the most unusual baseball season in memory, the team has still managed to fulfill that prediction.
Oakland nailed down a playoff spot Friday night after Seattle’s loss — and the A’s expected clinch came against their crossbay rivals, the Giants. With Houston’s loss Friday, Oakland could clinch the AL West as soon as Saturday at the Coliseum after two consecutive seasons as a wildcard team.
“We’re just playing,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We’ve talked since the beginning of the year about the division, and that’s still what we’re looking to do.”
“It’s special, but the division is even bigger for us,” A’s starter Chris Bassitt said. “We have a lot bigger goals . ... It’s awesome but we basically acted like we won (just) another game tonight.”
Bassitt turned in another excellent performance in Oakland’s 60 victory, putting the righthander firmly in any conversation about the firstround playoff pitching plans. The first round, or “wildcard” round, in the expanded playoff system, is a best twoofthree series, and there’s no reason Bassitt shouldn’t feature somewhere in there, even though he entered the season at the back end of the rotation.
“He’s been absolutely terrific,” Melvin said. “He’s been as consistent as anyone we’ve had all year . ... He deserves everything he’s getting right now. He’s a bonafide bigleague starter and he’s worked hard to get there.”
The A’s may have a nice advantage in any postseason series, given the strength of their pitching staff. The team could probably pick a name out of a hat for assignments, but if at all possible, Oakland will try to line things up to get the most favorable matchups against particular opponents.
The options include Sean Manaea, who has pitched extremely well the past month and is lefthanded; Jesús Luzardo, who is also a lefty, has the most electric stuff of the bunch and who shone in relief of Manaea in last year’s wildcard game. Then there’s Frankie Montas, who was the team’s Opening Night starter and looked to be the team’s ace until he went into a bit of a funk after missing a start with back discomfort.
Mike Fiers is experienced and a battler, plus he’s been passed over for wildcard starts each of the past two years, and the A’s lost both games. And Mike Minor, acquired at the trade deadline, was an AllStar last year and he turned in a twohit, complete game (seveninning) shutout his last time out. Minor and Manaea are the only men in the rotation with postseason starts to their credit.
Both Bassitt and Luzardo have good experience in the
“It’s special, but the division is even bigger for us. We have a lot bigger goals.”
Chris Bassitt, A’s starter, on clinching a playoff berth.
bullpen, so that could factor, too, in a short series, because the team could start one of the other options and have Bassitt or Luzardo at the ready if anything started to go haywire. But the ALDS and ALCS feature no days off, so both would be fairly certain rotation bets should Oakland advance — and the A’s will have a luxury few other teams will, with six solid starters.
Had A.J. Puk and Luzardo been healthy to start the season, Bassitt might have been in the bullpen. Instead, he has put up a rotationbest 2.57 ERA and hasn’t allowed more than four runs in an outing — he’s only done that twice. One was against potential firstround opponent Houston, but Bassitt also made two terrific starts against the Astros, allowing them 10 hits and one run over 14 innings.
Friday, he went 62⁄3 scoreless innings and allowed only three hits while walking three and striking out seven.
Oakland jumped out to an early lead against Logan Webb, with Jake Lamb providing a twoout RBI single, his sixth hit in four games since signing a freeagent deal with Oakland on Monday. In the third, Matt
Olson belted his 14th homer. Extrapolating for a 162game season, that would be 37 homers with about a month left to play — and in the fourth, Tommy La Stella and Marcus Semien added runscoring hits.
The A’s improved to 197 at home, and they’re likely to play host to a firstround series at the Coliseum.
Oakland has made six playoff appearances in the past nine years, second only to the Dodgers’ eight.