Petit-Led Bullpen Has Athletics at 3-1 Even As Coronavirus Concerns Accelerate
The one thing you knew about the Oakland A’s may have been how many home runs they hit.
It may have been how much potential their starting rotation has.
It may have been the high-voltage defense they play.
It may even have been that they’re growing more comfortable in their masks. The picture of the day Monday might have been first baseman Matt Olson and Angels’ All-Star Mike Trout standing and talking at first base, masked to the hilt.
So perhaps it’s only natural that the one thing no one talked about with the A’s is the one thing that has them 3-1 four games into a 60-game season.
It’s the bullpen. Monday in a series-ender against the Angels, five A’s reliever combined for five scoreless innings. Burch Smith, a pitcher whose been around the big leagues but under the radar, threw two shutout innings in Monday’s 3-0 win and became 2020’s first two-game winner. He also threw a scoreless 10th inning Monday and got the win when Matt Olson delivered a walkoff grand slam.
At the heart of the bullpen is another guy who’s been around a bit. Yusmeiro Petit, who has been with six different teams in a 13-year career continues to get the outs without which games slip away. He’s seldom one for a save or even a setup, but without what he did this series, there would have been precious few of either.
Monday saw him face Angels third baseman David Fletcher, who had eight hits in the four games, the Only Angels batter with a hit in each game. In the seventh inning, with the A’s up by three, Petit struck him out with a man on.
Just 18 hours earlier, Petit took over for A’s starter Mike Fiers with no one out and men on first and third with Oakland up by two runs. Petit got three outs, one of them a sacrifice fly, and turned over a 5-4 lead to the rest of the bullpen to nurse home for the final four innings.
And on opening night he went through the top of the Angels lineup for a scoreless fifth inning.
In all three of the games, he had to face the Angels best, the top of the lineup. All three times he made it work. Afterward, A’s manager Bob Melvin was breathing easily, but he almost didn’t bring Petit in Monday.
“I mean we ran him out there three times against the same guys,” Melvin said. “You know, that’s a difficult task. I was considering doing something different right there. And then I shook myself, because he’s just been so good, you know, getting their best hitters out. It was a battle with Fletcher, and he’s swinging such a hot bat, but at this point, I’m not really surprised that (Petit) came through.”
Petit has been refining his delivery, to which Melvin says, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“But he’s constantly trying to get better and do things with a different wrinkle,” the manager said. “Too this point, it’s been really successful for him. You just don’t see him slow down at his age (35). Pitching in the kind of high-leverage roles that he is right now, he’s got a few more years left in him.”
In all, the A’s relievers have allowed just one earned run, a homer off closer Liam Hendriks Friday, in 20.1 innings, good for a 0.44 ERA.
As for the masks, the news that the Miami Marlins had been hit hard by COVID-19, enough to postpone their home opener against the Orioles and to delay the Yankees at Philadelphia for a day or two – the Marlins came down with more than a dozen positive coronavirus tests while in Philly – underscored for Olson the need to wear a mask.
“I think that scared everybody,” Melvin said of the Marlins’ outbreak. “This is the kind of thing you were hoping wasn’t going to happen. You know these guys are in close proximity, and it worries you. /Today was a different level (of coronavirus concern).”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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