Bassitt says he feels fine after 1st start after break
“He had basically the same type of stuff that he has all year for us.” Bob Melvin, on Chris Bassitt
Chris Bassitt’s first AllStar Game appearance made for a slightly truncated midseason break for the A’s righthander, who ended the first half as the American League leader in innings pitched.
Bassitt threw 24 pitches in his AllStar Game inning Tuesday, and the A’s waited until Sunday to send the righthander back to the mound, seven days removed from his previous start at Texas.
Bassitt worked seven innings in a 42 loss to Cleveland, increasing his ALleading season total to 125 innings, and said he “felt great” physically. His start did end a notable streak: Bassitt exited with the A’s trailing 32 and was charged with a loss for the first time since April 6. His streak of 10 winning decisions was tied for the longest in the majors this season.
“He had basically the same type of stuff that he has all year for us,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He made a couple of pitches that he had to pay for and we just didn’t do enough offensively.”
Of Bassitt’s 94 total pitches, two were especially costly. Bradley Zimmer hit Bassitt’s first pitch of the game for a 423foot home run. Zimmer jumped on a 93 mph fastball and hit it 112 mph off the bat.
“Straight location,” Bassitt said. “When a guy’s swinging first pitch and expecting a fastball and I throw it middlemiddle, bad things are going to happen. If I execute a pitch, it’s one out.”
Daniel Johnson’s solo homer off Bassitt on a fullcount changeup with two outs in the seventh broke a 22 tie. Bassitt said he made a mental mistake by approaching the atbat as though he were facing another lefthanded hitter in Cleveland’s lineup.
Catcher Sean Murphy “was calling the completely right pitches,” Bassitt said. “I (screwed) the game up just because I had the wrong scouting report.”
Bassitt struck out eight and Cleveland averaged just an 80.4mph exit velocity on 19 balls put into play against him. Bassitt’s 10game winning streak was tied for fourthlongest in Oakland history. Jim “Catfish” Hunter owns the Oakland record with a 13game streak in 1973.
Briefly: First baseman Frank Schwindel, designated for assignment by Oakland on Friday, was claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs. … Reliever Sam Moll made his first A’s appearance since 2017 on Saturday with a scoreless inning. Melvin said Moll “threw well” and is “throwing harder than I remembered.” … A struggling A’s lineup is scheduled to face Shohei Ohtani in Monday’s opener of a twogame series against the Angels. “I don’t think it really matters right now,” Melvin said. “We just want to put consistent atbats together throughout the lineup.”