Erceg hurls 'electric stuff' en route to 1st MLB win

OAKLAND -- Two weeks ago, Lucas Erceg was toiling through his sixth year in Milwaukee’s farm system unsure if a shot in the Majors would ever come. In a tale of how quickly things can change in baseball, Erceg is now a big leaguer on his childhood team and firing 99 mph fastballs by some of the game’s elite hitters.

Erceg grew up roughly 35 miles south of Oakland in nearby San Jose, Calif., and frequented A’s games at the Coliseum as a teenager, dreaming of one day playing there. On Monday, it was the site of a moment he will never forget.

Donning a home white Athletics jersey, Erceg shut down a potent Braves offense by throwing three perfect innings of relief to earn his first Major League win in the A's 7-2 victory. The performance continued what has been a dream-like homestand for the right-hander, who was accompanied by a group of about 40 friends and family members in attendance on Friday night to watch him throw a scoreless inning against the Astros in what was his first game in Oakland.

“It feels fantastic,” said Erceg, who kept the lineup card from Monday’s game as a memento from his first win. “I got the beer shower and anything and everything being poured on me. Another moment for me to think back on later in life. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Acquired from the Brewers in exchange for cash considerations on May 17, Erceg immediately joined the A’s from the Minors and has been nothing short of electric. Against Atlanta, he inherited a 1-0 deficit in the fifth, relieving 2022 All-Star Paul Blackburn -- who allowed one run on four hits over four innings with six strikeouts in his season debut -- and punctuated a 1-2-3 frame with a strikeout of Austin Riley on a 99.3 mph fastball.

Erceg’s heater was so filthy that it went viral, with a clip of the strikeout sent through social media by the famed Pitching Ninja account on Twitter.

“Amazing,” Blackburn said of Erceg’s outing. “The guy was coming throwing 98-99 mph bowling ball sinkers. … Definitely a special talent. His first big league win, too. I know he’s from here. That’s awesome for him.”

A’s manager Mark Kotsay had only planned to go one inning with Erceg. But given how dominant the fifth went, he left him in for the sixth, and then the seventh. By the end of it, Erceg navigated through the entirety of a potent Braves lineup on 47 pitches. He retired all nine batters faced, four via strikeout, and showed off a fastball that averaged 97.6 mph to go along with a wipeout slider and a power sinker that allowed him to keep the ball on the ground often.

“Lucas came up big today,” Kotsay said. “He was throwing the ball so well and attacking the zone. Really, just electric stuff. We rode him as long as we could. That was a big performance.”

With the A’s desperate for relief pitching as they go through a miserable start to the season -- Monday’s win snapped a season-high 11-game losing streak -- Erceg has an opportunity to establish himself as a bullpen piece beyond 2023. If he can, it would be quite a remarkable story given the 28-year-old’s journey.

A second-round Draft pick by the Brewers out of Menlo College in 2016, Erceg began his pro career as a third baseman and was heralded as one of Milwaukee’s top prospects. With each season that went by, however, Erceg battled alcoholism and struggled with depression, and his performance declined.

Going through the COVID pandemic in 2020, Erceg became determined to stop drinking. A year later, he tinkered with becoming a two-way player at Double-A Biloxi before eventually focusing solely on pitching. Now, three years later, Erceg remains sober and is living out his dream.

“All those long bus rides and times that I was digging myself into a deeper hole with alcohol and other mental struggles that I had, it’s finally come full circle,” Erceg said. “I’ve been telling all my friends and family that it still hasn’t hit me yet. I’m still waiting for that day. Right now, I’m just riding the wave and enjoying every moment.

“All those times that I told my friends and family that I was trying to get here because of them, to finally have it happen and be home pitching for the Oakland A’s, it’s crazy.”