'Terrific' Bassitt adapts, sails through 7 in win

OAKLAND -- Any pitcher can dominate on a day when he brings his best stuff to the mound. It’s the game’s best pitchers who can get the job done even when not at their best, something Chris Bassitt did on Tuesday night against the D-backs.

On a night when the right-hander did not appear to have the best feel for his slider or miss as many bats as he normally does, Bassitt tossed seven strong innings of two-run ball in the A’s 5-2 victory at the Coliseum, turning in a final line that read similar to the stellar work he’s been providing for most of the 2021 campaign. The win kept Oakland in sole possession of first place in the American League West.

“He was terrific tonight,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “After a little bit of a tough outing the [start] before, he came back and worked really nicely again with an efficient seven innings. He looked like what we expect out of him.”

Bassitt’s slider -- a pitch he’s improved drastically this year to help him generate more strikeouts than ever before -- only made an appearance twice in Tuesday’s contest. The first one he threw was sent over the left-field wall by Christian Walker for a solo homer to lead off the second. Bassitt's second slider was thrown for a ball on a 2-2 count to Ketel Marte with two outs in the sixth.

In the past, Bassitt might have tried to unnecessarily force the use of that slider, despite its diminished effect on hitters. But the experience he has gleaned over the years as he goes through his seventh big league season has afforded him the ability to make adjustments on the fly. That’s why, after he came back to the A’s dugout following the conclusion of the second inning, Bassitt conferred with catcher Sean Murphy and decided to scrap the slider and cutter for the night.

“That’s where he is in his career now,” Melvin said. “He didn’t have a good feel for his breaking ball to that side of the plate. Just threw a lot of sinkers to both sides of the plate. When you can do things differently and have that kind of success, it means that, one, you have a lot of pitches, and two, you’re maturing as a pitcher and understand what’s working on a particular night.”

Bassitt relied heavily on a sinker-fastball mix, combining to throw those two pitches 71 percent of the time. His strikeout total was still a fair amount, six, four of which were of the looking variety. In fact, Bassitt only recorded five whiffs (swings and misses) out of his 88 pitches, marking the lowest amount of whiffs in any of his starts so far this season.

Another reason Bassitt abandoned his slider was the lefty-heavy offense that was deployed by Arizona. Eight of the nine batters in the D-backs' starting lineup hit from the left side. Because the improved slider is a pitch he said he’s developed to be used more against righties, Bassitt preferred to lean on the sinker.

“A team stacks eight lefties against me, I’m not going to throw a slider much,” Bassitt said. “We had a game plan for them and it was more sinker-changeup.”

Once the A’s provided a nice cushion in a long fourth inning that saw them send 11 batters to the plate and score five runs on nothing more than walks and singles, Bassitt really settled in. Retiring 15 in a row at one point, he finished by setting down 18 of his final 20 batters faced.

Bassitt then turned the game over to the bullpen duo of Yusmeiro Petit and Lou Trivino, who finished the game off with two scoreless innings of relief.

"Bassitt Day" is quickly turning into “Win Day” for the A’s. Over his last 11 starts, Bassitt has a 6-0 record. Oakland is 10-1 over that stretch. He might even have a case to make a July trip to Colorado for the All-Star Game, having improved after Tuesday's victory to 6-2 overall, with a 3.44 ERA and 86 strikeouts across 81 innings pitched this season.

The A’s raised some eyebrows when they named Bassitt their Opening Day starter earlier this year. He’s not exactly a household name, and there are other pitchers on Oakland’s starting staff who throw harder with flashier stuff. But if you look at the numbers over the past two seasons, Bassitt is certainly pitching like a No. 1 starter. Dating back to the start of the 2020 campaign, Bassitt is 11-4 with a 2.94 ERA in 24 starts.

“He’s been lights-out for us,” A’s utility man Chad Pinder said. “He’s been our glue. He’s well-respected in our clubhouse and has done an outstanding job for us on the mound. He’s a lot of fun to play behind.”