‘Exciting’: Manaea feels he has velo back

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Sean Manaea’s first two pitches Saturday night were 93 mph, and his third pitch was 94.

That’s quite a bit more zip for the A’s lefthander, whose velocity was down the past two years following shoulder surgery.

“Man, it felt incredible,” said Manaea, who pitched three innings in his Cactus League debut in Oakland’s 52 win over the Reds, most of his offerings at 93. “I felt amazing out there.”

Admitting he was nervous pitching in front of fans, Manaea threw nearly 60 pitches, struck out four batters, walked one and yielded three hits, including Nick Castellanos’ RBI single in the third. Manaea followed up by retiring his last two batters.

“That’s great,” Manaea said about his uptick in velocity. “I don’t think I (reached) that in a long time. Everything I’ve been working on is coming out, and my body feels great. That was very exciting.”

There was a period in Manaea’s career that he relied on plain heat. Over time, with the velocity dipping, he “learned how to pitch,” in his words. Now, if he can keep the velocity up, combined with what he learned about pitching, “it’s gonna go a long way.”

Before Saturday, Manaea made gradual strides in simulated games on back fields, facing teammates and having the freedom to experiment. Throwing 10 consecutive changeups. Working from the stretch. Practicing pickoff moves.

It made him more comfortable when he took the mound Saturday. So did his fastball.

“We’ll look to see if it stays that way through five, six innings,” manager Bob Melvin said, “but the first time out, to have that kind of command and velo, makes him feel good. He’s been working in that direction.”

Early in camp, Manaea revealed he’s working on a different mindset because in the past he sometimes found himself “too nice, too easygoing” and wants to focus on “just believing that I’m nasty.”

There was a bit of that Saturday, and he expects the nicetonasty transformation to continue — at least every fifth day; otherwise, he remains a nice dude. (“Very wellliked from the minute he got here,” Melvin said.) In fact, Saturday, Manaea mixed “nasty” into his interview nearly as often as he mixed 93 into his repertoire.

“I know I have that mentality that I’m nasty,” he said. “I think every other one of us (in the rotation) believes individually that they’re nasty, too. Which in turn makes the group nasty.” Chad Pinder hit an oppositefield, tworun homer, and Seth Brown and Austin Allen hit RBI doubles for Oakland. The A’s got another run off old friend Sean Doolittle when Luis Barrera walked, took third on Skye Bolt’s double and scored on Pete Kozma’s sacrifice fly. Doolittle signed a oneyear deal with the Reds for $1.5 million. Catcher Sean Murphy, returning from a collapsed lung, got some atbats in a simulated game and is expected to make a Cactus League appearance in the next week. Pitcher A.J. Puk (shoulder) also got simulated action and impressed the staff. Outfielder Ka’ai Tom (oblique) will appear in Monday’s game.