Bassitt adds new wrinkle in repertoire
ARLINGTON, Texas — There were questions this spring of how baseball’s return to a 162game season might change teams’ use of pitchers, especially starters, after they worked far fewer innings than usual during last year’s twomonth sprint.
To this point, at least, the A’s rotation has resisted any restraint. Oakland leads the majors in innings pitched by starters. Chris Bassitt has led that charge. The righthander worked seven innings as the A’s won 51 over the Rangers on Thursday. He left the game at 992⁄3 innings this season, most of any pitcher in the American League.
Bassitt continues to pace the starting staff
with a steady hand. He has an eightgame winning streak and is unbeaten since April 6. The A’s are 124 this season when he takes the mound. Bassitt scattered five hits Thursday, all singles, and gave up one run. He logged 100plus pitches for the fifth time this season and has worked seven or more innings in six of his past 10 outings.
“Every game I want it to be my game, as deep as I can go, as long as I can go,” Bassitt said. “And obviously, with the success I’ve kind of had, (manager Bob Melvin) trusts me to do that. I would think a couple years ago I would have been done after six innings there.”
Bassitt started the seventh at 90 pitches. Jose Trevino lined a oneout single in an eightpitch atbat. Jake Diekman warmed in the A’s bullpen. Melvin said Bassitt was facing his last hitter. Isiah KinerFalefa grounded Bassitt’s 104th pitch sharply up the middle. Shortstop Elvis Andrus made a sliding stop and a glove flip to second base to start a double play.
“It’s what a No. 1 guy does,” Melvin said. “Seven innings nowadays feels like nine from your starter. … But it’s what he set out to do. He wants to go out there and he wants to take some pressure off the bullpen and pitch deep in games and have us use as few guys out of the bullpen as we possibly can.”
Diekman notched three strikeouts in a scoreless eighth. Lou Trivino worked the ninth and has not allowed a run in 10 outings in June — thanks in part to a highlightreel catch by Tony Kemp on Andy Ibáñez’s oneout drive to the warning track.
Bassitt fired sinkers and sliders against a lineup with six righthanded batters. Bassitt said he unveiled a new pitch Thursday — scrapping his usual cutter in favor of a harder slider with a grip he used in 2014. He also threw the slower slider that has been so effective for him against righties this year. The pitches varied in velocity from 72.8 mph to 84.4 mph.
“I think it’s going to be a really big pitch for me down the stretch,” Bassitt said.
Command wavered, but Bassitt stayed effective. He issued three walks and hit a batter but dodged traffic. Texas’ run against him scored without a hit. Bassitt threw a slider that clipped Eli White to open the second inning. White took third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout. The Rangers loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth for Trevino, who singled twice against Bassitt in the game. This time, Bassitt induced a flyball to center.
The A’s split four games in Texas. They struck in the first inning of both wins. Texas lefthander Kolby Allard faced seven batters in the first Thursday — six put pitches into play at 94.8 mph or higher off the bat. Four hits led to three runs. Ramón Laureano doubled in a run and Jed Lowrie capped the inning with an RBI single. Lowrie entered Thursday in a 3for33 skid with one RBI in that span. He saw Allard again in the fourth and hit a changeup 433 feet for his sixth home run.
“I actually peeked at the exit velocity because I saw they were putting that up right away,” said Lowrie. “I haven’t played here much so I didn’t know whether it was going to go out or not. But I assumed it was once I saw the exit velocity.”