San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Bassitt’s return successful, offense less so
ROYALS 2, A’S 0
A few teammates greeted Chris Bassitt in the A’s clubhouse Saturday morning smiling as though they hadn’t seen the lanky right-hander in ages.
Bassitt had been up with the A’s briefly in April, and again for a day in May. Neither time did he get a chance to pitch in a major-league game for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in May 2016.
More than two years removed from his last A’s outing, Bassitt returned in a spot-starter role Saturday and delivered seven strong innings in a 2-0 loss to the Royals at the Coliseum.
“Tons of emotion, obviously,” Bassitt said afterward. “Long time coming.”
With Trevor Cahill nursing a sore Achilles, the A’s recalled Bassitt from Triple-A Nashville, where he hadn’t thrown more than six innings in a start this season. Against the Royals he allowed one run on three hits and a walk, striking out six. He was outdueled by Royals left-hander Danny Duffy, who allowed three singles over seven innings and struck out 10.
Bassitt first reached Oakland in 2015 with a mid- to high-90s fastball, over-the-top curveball and shaky command. His 1-8 record that year belied a 3.56 ERA. He made five starts in 2016 before undergoing reconstructive surgery of his ulnar collateral ligament on May 6, and after recovery spent last season in the minors.
During the time, Bassitt said: “There were some dark days. Even this year there were some dark days.” His first call-up as a long reliever in April coincided with a strong run by the A’s starters. He was recalled again May 26 only to be sent back to Nashville the following day. Meanwhile he struggled at Triple-A, compiling a 6.10 ERA.
“The excitement of coming up and finally kind of getting that so-called monkey off your back, where finally you’re back and pitching in the game, and then you don’t do it — when you get sent down it’s just like, ‘Come on,’ ” Bassitt said. “It was just a weird situation to be in. I didn’t really handle it mentally good at all.”
Saturday, Bassitt said, his adrenaline was “crazy” in the early innings. He hit a batter in the first and allowed a run in the second when Ryan Goins doubled and scored on a single by Paulo Orlando.
He then faced 18 more batters without allowing a hit, recording five of his final nine outs by strikeout and pumping his fist slightly after Orlando waved at a curveball to end the seventh. Bassitt credited catcher Josh Phegley — also acquired in the Jeff Samardzija trade with the White Sox in 2014 — with helping settle him down after the second inning.
“I think for the most part he was pretty good today, and he used all his pitches,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He slowed you down with a 70 mph curveball, threw enough sliders, and he always has the movement on his fastball. I thought he was really good.”
The A’s, however, had their own problems making contact. A’s batters struck out a total of 13 times and stranded seven runners on base as they were shut out for the sixth time this season. Kansas City padded the final margin on Alex Gordon’s homer off Yusmeiro Petit in the ninth.
Melvin said Duffy consistently threw “kind of a letter-high fastball right at the hands and a lot of really good changeups, especially late in counts and off-counts, and the bad swings that we did have seemed to be against his changeup. Threw just enough breaking balls to keep us off balance.”
The Royals almost scored on an odd play in the fourth, when they challenged two out calls on the same play. A call at first base was overturned, but umpires ruled Alcides Escobar out at home on Matt Olson’s relay and Phegley’s swipe tag, which ended the inning. Melvin credited Olson with a heads-up play.