Luzardo Shows Off his Stuff; Piscotty Walks Off for the Athletics' Win
On the evening of his first Major League start, Jesús Luzardo didn’t get the win.
For that, the A’s collectively had to wait until the bottom of the ninth inning when Stephen Piscotty delivered the club’s second first-pitch walkoff grand slam of the season to beat Texas 5-1.
In almost all other aspects of the game, however, Luzardo lived up to the billing. In five innings he allowed two hits, two walks and didn’t allow a runner past second base. Just what the A’s would hope to see from the pitcher professed to be the best prospect in their system.
He left the game in a scoreless tie with the Rangers’ Lance Lynn, who came into the game with a dozen scoreless innings. Lynn would add six more on Tuesday, but Matt Chapman’s leadoff homer in the seventh inning meant neither starter would get a decision.
Even without personal accolade of a win, Luzardo would call the night “really awesome.”
“Just anytime we can get a win, and knowing that I was able to keep us in the game for five innings and give us a chance to win,” he said. “I think that was awesome.”
He said he wasn’t nervous when he was on the mound. Earlier in the day, just thinking about what was about to happen, then there were nerves.
“The nerves were building up, leading to it from this morning,” he said. “It was typical nerves. I get nervous or butterflies before I pitch, but once I started getting my routine, once I was out there on the field and warming up, all that stuff was gone for me.”
Through his 76 pitches, Luzardo, 22 and the owner of a left arm of immense promise, threw hard, hitting 98 mph on the radar gun and repeatedly ringing up 96s and 97s. When he brought his off-speed stuff, the drop was dramatic, to 82 or 83 mph.
More than that, he never let the Rangers hitters get comfortable. There weren’t many dynamic swings. Although the fourth-inning two-out double by Todd Frazier was hit reasonably well. Luzardo said afterward he didn’t feel his slider was where he wanted it to be, but you couldn’t see that from the results.
“He was terrific,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He got his pitch count up a little it; 85 (pitches) was as far as I’d have gone with him. It didn’t make sense to send him back out a sixth time for us.”
There was room for second-guessing when Yusmeiro Petit allowed a two-out double in the sixth to Todd Frazier to give Texas the lead, but an inning later, Matt Chapman ended Texas starter Lance Lynn’s string of scoreless inning to start the season at 18 with a leadoff homer that tied it.
And the A’s hung around until the ninth, when Matt Olson, Matt Chapman and Mark Canha worked walks off Edinson Volquez. One out later, Piscotty hit the first pitch thrown by reliever Jesse Chavez out to dead center.
By that time, Luzardo was in the clubhouse as were relievers Yusmeiro Petit, T.J. McFarland and Joakim Soria.
“It felt like the clubhouse exploded,” Luzardo said. “It felt like we were in the dugout, celebrating.”
For his part, Piscotty didn’t think he’d gone deep. It was a cool night with the elements keeping the ball in check. And, save for Chapman’s game-tying homer in the seventh, the ball was staying in the park.
“It was going to be the game-winning sacrifice fly,” Piscotty said of his first-ever walkoff grand slam.
“It was a cold night and the wind was blowing. I just knew I’d hit it deep enough to score the runner, and that was what the excitement was about.
“Honestly, when I got to first base, I was pretty surprised. I was glad I didn’t pass (Mark) Canha at first base, because he was hanging around the bag. It was kind of an awkward moment, but funny.”
The A’s did a somewhat better job of social distancing on this walkoff grand slam than they had on opening night when Olson did the walkoff honors.
“I think we’d all seen a few walkoff homers and the way other teams were doing it,” Piscotty said. “(We were) trying to be a little more distanced there. It’s hard to control the emotion, but we did a decent job, I think.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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