A’s 4, Blue Jays 1: Cole Irvin gives up three hits in eight innings.
Cole Irvin peered over the glove held to his face. He looked in toward catcher Sean Murphy and uncharted territory. Irvin exhaled into his motion. Murphy shifted to his left. Irvin fired a fastball at 94 mph, his 102nd pitch of the night. Danny Jansen swung through it.
Irvin strode toward the A’s dugout, their first starter this season to complete eight innings. His work in a 41 win Tuesday night at the Coliseum was masterful. He held the Blue Jays to three hits and struck out nine. The strikeouts and innings were career highs for the lefthander. The A’s improved their majorsbest record to 1912.
“Eight innings, I either fell asleep or had a lot of confidence in him, one or the other — probably the latter,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He just continues to get better and better and pitch with more confidence.”
The Blue Jays entered Tuesday with the AL’s thirdbest OPS against lefthanded pitching. They sent up a lineup with eight righthanded hitters. Irvin had faced many of them as a Phillies minorleaguer and “felt kind of confident in terms of the game plan.” He faced the minimum through five innings. Cavan Biggio’s third
inning single was the Blue Jays’ lone hit to that point. Irvin promptly erased him, inducing a doubleplay grounder from Santiago Espinal.
“Early in the game, I wasn’t getting the fastball gloveside,” Irvin said. “As soon as I started doing that, it totally changed the way they were taking atbats, kind of got them off balance.”
It was what the A’s needed.
Melvin’s bullpen was thin Tuesday amid a stretch of 17 games in 17 days; no reliever stirred until the seventh inning. Irvin’s shutout bid ended in the sixth when Espinal singled and scored on a double by Marcus Semien, the former A’s shortstop. Irvin struck out Bo Bichette looking at an inside fastball to stem the threat.
Irvin worked both sides of the plate, unafraid to go inside to righthanded hitters. Vladi
mir Guerrero Jr. struck out looking at an inside fastball to open the seventh inning. Irvin issued his lone walk to Teoscar Hernández and retired Randal Grichuk on a popout. Irvin then struck out Lourdes Gurriel Jr. looking on a 94.3mph fastball, his 90th pitch and highest velocity of the night.
“Toward the end, (he) kind of smelled the finish line, or at least getting to 100 pitches and eight innings,” Melvin said. “So, man, he’s been terrific.”
Irvin’s ERA in his past four starts is 1.42. He has walked three batters and struck out 29 in 251⁄3 innings. He spotted fastballs and changeups Tuesday, throwing 71 of 102 pitches for strikes. “I thought he did a great job of mixing speeds, didn’t make many mistakes,” second baseman Jed Lowrie said.
“It’s really fun to pitch with fans in the stands again, and they definitely helped in those later innings,” Irvin said. “But it was also understanding that I knew I had more in the tank.”
The A’s continued their success against opposing lefthanded starters, improving to 93 when facing a southpaw. They scored four runs in the second inning Tuesday against Toronto’s Anthony Kay. Murphy and Matt Chapman opened the inning with singles and scored on a double by Lowrie. Mitch Moreland then sliced an oppositefield home run to the leftfield corner.