Estes pitches with heavy heart after brother-in-law's death

NEW YORK -- Before Joey Estes stepped on the mound to begin his start on Wednesday night at Citi Field, he drew a giant heart in the dirt around the pitcher’s mound and inscribed the name “Vinny” inside of it.

It was a tribute to Vincent Gahret, Estes’ brother-in-law, who was killed in a multi-vehicle accident when he was riding his motorcycle and was rear-ended by a drunk driver in their hometown of Palmdale, Calif., on Saturday night. Pitching with a heavy heart, the A’s rookie did his best to keep the A’s close in a 9-1 loss that got out of hand late. Estes limted the Mets to three runs on seven hits with three strikeouts across 5 1/3 innings.

“It was an emotional outing,” Estes said. “Just a lot going on outside of baseball. It was a big outing just to represent my family back home. … I just wanted to pitch with him on the mound tonight.”

Estes shared a deep bond with Gahret, who was only 27. The two first met nearly a decade ago when Estes started dating his now-fiancée, Heaven Garcia, in high school. Throughout Estes’ journey in baseball and life, Gahret quickly became one of his strongest supporters.

“I’ve known Vinny since I met my fiancée,” Estes said. “I was 13. Now, I’m about to be 23 years old. Heaven’s family is my family and he is my brother. We treated each other as such. I lived with that family. We were together all the time. I saw him every day. I would train and he would help me out with baseball. Just great memories.”

Estes was with the A’s on the road in Toronto when he found out about the fatal accident early Sunday morning. The 72 hours leading up to Wednesday’s game have been some of the most difficult of Estes’ life. Still, he found a way to collect his emotions and deliver another solid outing in what continues to be an encouraging first full season in the big leagues.

"You can’t really explain [the feeling] when you lose a sibling,” Estes said. “It’s hard to put things together. It kind of makes life feel unreal. It doesn’t feel real. I feel like I should be talking to him right now. He used to call me and text me all the time telling me how proud he was of me."

Estes paused and took a deep breath before continuing; “It’s not easy. But I just kind of have to move on and live in his presence. Be a good person, because that’s exactly what he was. He was a really good person. If you knew him, he was the best person you’ll ever meet. It sucks because everyone you say that about somehow has a short-lived life. It’s like, that person was the best person ever, yet they died so young. … I just want to say out of all of this, please don’t drink and drive. There’s no reason to do that and destroy families.”

Pitching around a couple of solo homers by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, Estes managed to turn in one of his better outings on the road, which has been a difficult task for him at times. He entered the night carrying a 7.47 ERA in nine games (eight starts) on the road as opposed to a 2.40 ERA in seven starts at home.

Wednesday marked the third road start in which Estes has pitched into the sixth inning this season.

“I thought he did a good job,” manager Mark Kotsay said of Estes. “He gave us an opportunity to stay in that game through his outing. I don’t know if he felt great overall. But I did think he did a nice job in just keeping us in the game and trying to let the offense come back.”

Perhaps a side effect of being without top hitter Brent Rooker, who returned home to California on Wednesday morning to be with his wife for the birth of their second child, the A’s offense was held to just one run on six hits, with Miguel Andujar’s double off Mets starter David Peterson in the sixth being Oakland’s only extra-base hit of the night.

“Taking [Rooker’s] production out of the lineup definitely has impact,” Kotsay said. “But these other guys that were in the lineup tonight are capable of putting up runs. We just ran up against a pretty good lefty that threw up a good game.”