Tigers prevail over A’s in unlikely pitching duel

Brady Basso did everything one could hope for from a rookie and more for the Oakland Athletics tonight.

In his first ever major league start, the southpaw delivered six shutout innings of three-hit ball. It only took him 85 pitches to get to the end of his outing and strike out six Detroit Tigers along the way. Commanding his arsenal with impressive poise, Basso didn’t look much like a rookie today. He established his soft but consistent 93 mph fastball early and was able to constantly keep his opposition off-balance with his slider and curveball. Leaving the ballgame with a shutout intact, the 26-year-old, in spite of the growing stable of options, made a strong case that he should be among the top candidates for a rotation spot next season.

Unfortunately, Detroit battled just as hard on the pitching side. Starting with right-hander Brenan Hanifee as the opener, he ended up facing three batters, of which two were lefties, and gave up a hit to Brent Rooker, the only righty he faced. Not sure what the strategy was there, but southpaw Brian Hurter came in with one out left to go in the 1st and capably moved through the A’s lineup. His only blemish came in the bottom of the 5th when Zack Gelof got a leadoff single and quickly stole second. An RBI single from Kyle McCann scored the first run of the night and gave Oakland a 1-0 lead.

That lead was sadly erased in the top of the 7th due to a pivotal challenge. With T.J. McFarland on in relief of Basso and a runner on first, a groundball that should’ve been a fairly routine double play got bobbled by Zack Gelof at second. As the ball came from third to second on a spot-on Tristan Gray throw, Gelof never secured the baseball in his glove and dropped the ball on the transfer to his throwing hand and didn’t even give himself to get the out at first.

Initially, the second base umpire ruled it an out at second as he saw the ball get into Gelof’s glove, but upon review, the ball was clearly never secure in either of his hands. The result was runners at first and second with still no outs. McFarland ended up walking the next batter and loading the bases. Fortunately, he, along with Otañez, were able to limit the damage and escape with just two runs allowed after a groundout and a sacrifice fly. Nonetheless, the A’s were now in a 2-1 hole that they were never able to climb out of.

Osvaldo Bido, in spite of his stellar August, came in for the 8th as he seemingly now takes his turn to come out of the bullpen and make space for some rotation newcomers. He capably shut Detroit down for a couple of innings, getting a trio of strikeouts along the way. However, it was to no avail as Jason Foley nailed down the save for the Tigers and put them back over .500.

Not quite the classic that yesterday’s game was, but a hard-fought one nonetheless with some promising pitching performances. That makes tomorrow a must-see rubber match as another Oakland rookie in J.T. Ginn takes on a yet-to-be-determined starter for the Tigers.