A’s defense shows out behind Bido’s career-best start

TORONTO -- Osvaldo Bido marched off the mound after the 83rd pitch of his outing, a fastball on the inside edge of the plate that earned a swinging strike.

The Oakland starter met his catcher at the foul line, tapping gloves in celebration of another strikeout and a fifth straight clean inning on Saturday at Rogers Centre.

The righty was locked in a pitchers’ duel with Blue Jays starter Yariel Rodríguez for most of the day, but, helped out by a Brent Rooker homer, it was Bido and the A’s who ended up on top in Oakland’s 1-0 win.

“All my pitches were working well, I had confidence in all of them today,” Bido said through team coach and interpreter Ramón Hernández. “I was just going inning by inning, trying to make my plan every inning before I [went] out. All my pitches were working today.”

The 28-year-old delivered six shutout frames while allowing just two hits, the best start of his MLB career. To earn his second straight quality start, Bido leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball while mixing in four secondary offerings to keep Toronto’s bats off balance.

He earned five strikeouts while limiting hard contact effectively, allowing just two knocks over 90 mph, allowing Oakland’s defense to go to work behind him.

Shea Langeliers recorded four hits, but his best plays of the day came in the field. On the second pitch of the contest, the A’s backstop darted out from behind the plate to pick up a swinging bunt off the bat of George Springer, corralling the spiraling ball before taking two steps and firing to first. Three innings later, he made a similar off-balanced throw to first off a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. dribbler.

In the third frame, Oakland’s entire defense came together. Third baseman Darell Hernaiz stepped in on a grounder, snagging the bouncer with his glove before turning and firing to second base. The play was quickly relayed by Zack Gelof, who took the throw and fired it on to first for the double play.

It was a routine double play, but it snapped a streak of eight straight games for the Athletics without a double play, tied for the second-longest streak in Oakland history. Four innings later, the A’s infield turned their second double play of the contest.

“The ground-ball double play has been escaping us,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “But it came up big today.”

Even Bido got in on the defensive action. Facing Guerrero with two outs in the sixth, Bido snagged a bouncing comebacker on the mound, posing with the caught ball for a moment, before trotting over to first base to record the inning’s final out.

The flashing defense on Saturday has been a growing trend for the A’s, despite the lack of double plays lately. After committing 34 errors in their first 43 games of the season, they’ve been charged with just 35 in the last 75 contests.

But even a dominant Bido and smooth work in the field would’ve been washed away if it wasn’t for Rooker. Oakland’s top slugger snapped the pitchers' duel in the sixth with a towering fly ball to left. The deep fly bounced off the top of the outfield wall, hitting the rail before skittering back into play.

After a quick review, the hit was deemed a homer, breaking the deadlock and ensuring Bido’s strong showing wouldn’t go wasted.

“That was kind of one of those games where it felt like the first team to score was gonna win,” Rooker said. “Rodríguez was good for them. Bido was obviously fantastic for us. Then our bullpen came in and locked it down, like they’ve been doing. Those games are fun to play in, sometimes.”