Manaea Latest Athletics Starter to Step Up as Rotation Emerges as a Useful Weapon Again

The Oakland Athletics got five perfect innings and seven one-run innings Thursday from lefty Sean Manaea in beating Astros 3-1 to take four of the five games in the series. The A's starters are making a September case for Oakland to be a force when the playoffs roll around in October.

It’s not so much that the A’s have the second-best record in the American League that should concern their competition.

It’s not so much that Oakland just took four of five from the second-place team in the AL West to open the biggest divisional lead in baseball at 6½ games.

Or even that the A’s have won five of seven after having lost three straight to get back to a dozen games over .500.

The rest of the AL should be concerned about the A’s because after having almost a week of scheduled games erased after a positive COVID-19 test, the Oakland starting pitchers are beginning to flex their collective muscle.

The starters were problematic in the first half of the 60-game season, the A’s jumping to a lead in the West one the strength of the best bullpen in baseball and a bunch of clutch late inning hits. But in the last four days, the A’s have gotten seven-inning starts from Chris Bassitt (zero runs), Jesús Luzardo (two runs) and, on Thursday, Sean Manana (one run).

If the A’s starters are going to be locked in for the stretch drive and beyond, Oakland could be as dangerous a team as there is in the game come playoff time

Manaea threw five perfect innings Thursday before giving up two hits and a run in the sixth. That gave the Astros just their third lead of the five-game series, but the bottom of the sixth saw Matt Olson hit a mile-high fly ball into the right field seats for a two-run homer, and the A’s were home free from there with relievers Jake Diekman and Liam Hendriks closing it out.

“You can’t help but feel a lot more confident out there,” right fielder Mark Canha said when asked about the upsurge in quality starting pitching from the green-and-gold. “As an outfielder I just feel a little more confident and I feel I can play a little more aggressive. You will get a lot more miss-hits, so it’s easier, and you should play with a little more confidence.”

Manaea is on a roll, going 4-0 in his last five starts with a 1.98 ERA, walking just two in those five games. Luzardo, a rookie who allowed two solo homers but only three other base runners in Wednesday’s win, is coming off career bests with seven innings and 100 pitches. Bassitt is coming off one of the best games of his career and has the best ERA of the starters at 3.12.

“It’s been big,” manager Bob Melvin said. “And we’re going to lean on our starters a little bit harder here during this stretch.”

The A’s, who had a doubleheader Tuesday against the Astros, which they split, have another doubleheader Saturday in Texas and yet a third Monday in Seattle. The A’s need their starters to gobble innings. They seem up to the task, and Melvin says they’ll be leaned on “because we have to.”

“We only used two relievers the last two games (the Luzardo and Manaea starts), and that’s not the way it’s been going for us,” Melvin said. “It’s a little bit later in the season, and the pitch counts are going up. But it’s the effectiveness that allows them (to stay in). Usually it’s that six-inning mark that makes it tough to send them out for the seventh when you have our type of bullpen.

“But now the seventh inning is in play for the starters.”

Manaea made a case to pitch the eighth, but he did it with his pitch count, 61, and not with verbal lobbying efforts. He answered in the affirmative if he would have been interested in trying to go for a complete game, but as is usual for him, didn’t press the case.

“I pretty much do what they tell me to do,” Manaea said. “I know eventually I came out, but you know the situation at that part of the game was different. It’s one of those things.”

If this were another game in a 162-game season, those 61 pitches would have been few enough to keep Manaea in the game. But with the season running down and just 18 of the 60 games on the schedule still to play, the manager appreciated that Manaea wasn’t pushing to remain on the mound.

“He never does (lobby to stay in games),” Melvin said, breaking into a smile. “He’s real good about that. He might be the only guy who’s real good about that. He understands; he knows what kind of bullpen we have down there.”

And the A’s have the kind of bullpen out of which two scoreless innings might be expected. And achieved.

Oakland’s final 18 games include 12 games played against teams with sub-.500 record – four with the Rangers, six with the Mariners and two with the Rockies – and six games against teams with winning records, three each with the Giants and Dodgers.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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