Oakland A’s left-handed starter Sean Manaea sat in the visitor’s dugout at T-Mobile Park in Seattle Thursday night with his team batting in the seventh inning. His arms rested atop the bench, his head bobbing back and forth as he mouthed the words to a song while his foot tapped out its rhythm.
It was a flash of comfort in the later stages of the game, an example of the same confidence and ease that guided the A’s southpaw through seven tremendous innings of one-run ball in which he established a new career-high 13 strikeouts in Oakland’s 4-1 victory.
Manaea, now 7-6 on the season, earned his first win since June 14 while helping Oakland improve to 56-42 on the year, 2 1/2 games behind the Houston Astros in the West. He became the first A’s pitcher to record 13 strikeouts and allow one run or fewer since Todd Stottlemyre on June 16, 1995.
“He’s having a hell of a year,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We haven’t scored a ton of runs for him and I don’t think his record is indicative of how well he’s pitched this year. But what’d he have, 13 strikeouts today? That’s pretty good.”
Manaea found his groove early. He pounded the strike zone with fastballs, at times revving the pitch up to 96 miles per hour, rare velocity for a pitcher whose heater has averaged around 91 mph this season. On Thursday the pitch hummed in at an average speed of 92.9 mph, a full tick above his season average.
“When Sean’s throwing it like that, I like our chances,” A’s catcher Sean Murphy said. “He seemed to be going pretty good tonight.”
Added Melvin: “He’s going to get a ton of swings and misses when he has good velocity and his changeup is going to get just as many swings and misses because of the velocity and having to start the bat early.”
Manaea struck out nine batters in his first four innings by using offspeed pitches to keep the Mariners off balance. By the time his outing ended, Manaea generated swings on 53 of 106 pitches, including 21 swing-and-misses. Just 11 balls were put into play.
“Giving the boys a chance to win is the ultimate goal for me as a pitcher,” Manaea said. “Just to be able to do my job like that is huge.”
Manaea’s excellent performance did not come without some adversity. Early in the contest, home plate umpire Sam Holbrook made a handful of questionable calls that went against the A’s starter. In the third inning Holbrook appeared to miss back-to-back pitches that led to one of Manaea’s three walks.
Later in the contest, it was Manaea who got himself into some trouble after he left a fastball over the plate to Seattle catcher Tom Murphy, who blasted it over the fence in left field to narrow his team’s deficit to 2-1. But strikeouts in the seventh mitigated the damage, as they had all night, and the run proved inconsequential.
“I think pretty much since I’ve been up (in the Majors) I’ve been a fastball-changeup guy,” Manaea said of his ability to generate strikeouts. “I have trust in those two things… it just makes the game a whole lot easier.”Manaea’s superb pitching also alleviated some offensive pressure for an A’s team that scored just two runs in the first seven innings, but picked things up late with a two-run eighth inning that sealed their victory. Every A’s starter but first baseman Matt Olson picked up a hit in the winning effort. Center fielder Ramon Laureano drove in two runs, and Olson and Sean Murphy each knocked in one.
On a night of solid offensive performances, it was a sacrifice bunt by shortstop Elvis Andrus that paved the way for the A’s eighth-inning offense that stood out to Melvin.
“That ends up being huge,” Melvin said of Andrus’ bunt. “That can’t be missed. Being able to do some things in games when you’re not hitting homers — you have to be able to win games a little bit differently.”
The A’s left 14 runners on base throughout the contest and went just 4-for-16 with runners in scoring position. While the numbers may seem lackluster at first glance, Melvin said he was satisfied with his team’s performance at the plate after it went up against Mariners’ right-handed starter Chris Flexen, a former Newark Memorial High star whose 1.36 ERA since June 15 was the lowest in the Majors entering play.
“We left 14 guys on and that’s a lot,” Melvin said. “But it’s giving yourself more opportunities. The more opportunities you get the more you get some of them in.”
The A’s also received strong performances from their bullpen on Thursday night. Right-hander Sergio Romo pitched a scoreless eighth inning, his latest appearance in a streak of excellent outings. Romo hasn’t allowed a run since June 26 and has limited opponents to just two hits in their last 30 at-bats against him.
“Now he’s getting lefties out,” Melvin said of Romo. “He’s always gotten righties out but now he’s getting lefties out… He’s pitching like you’ve seen him pitch years ago.”
Closer Lou Trivino pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his 16th save of the season.
The A’s are scheduled to play their second of four games in Seattle on Friday at 7:10 p.m. PT. Righty Frankie Montas is expected to start for Oakland with All-Star lefty Yusei Kikuchi expected to oppose him.
The A’s will play 19 of their next 24 games on the road. It’s a grueling stretch for a team trying to claw its way back to the top of its division. Manaea believes he got the trip off on the right foot.
“I know this is going to be a big grinder of a road trip,” Manaea said, “to start it off like this is huge.”
