Given a seemingly endless supply of free baserunners by a generous Cleveland pitching staff, the streaking A’s finished off a three-game sweep on the road Thursday.
Beneficiaries of 10 walks and three hit batters by Cleveland pitchers, the A’s drove those runners home with regularity behind ace starter Chris Bassitt and won 17-0.
It was the seventh straight win for the A’s, who improved to 67-48 and can get to 20 games over .500 for the first time this season when they open a three-game series Friday in Texas against the Rangers.
Given that the Rangers entered play Thursday with a .351 winning percentage that was the second-worst in the American League, the A’s can continue to put pressure on the Houston Astros in the A.L. West.
Bassitt improved to 12-3 with six scoreless innings, giving up three hits with two walks and six strikeouts. He is 8-0 in 14 starts on the road, one win behind Bob Welch for the longest road winning streak by an A’s starter.
Relievers A.J. Puk, Deolis Guerra and Jake Diekman finished things up for the A’s in the bullpen, with each pitching a scoreless inning.
Eli Morgan, the Cleveland starter, got things started in the wrong direction for his team with three walks and two hit batters in four innings, falling to 1-6.
Five of the 10 walks for the A’s were drawn by third baseman Matt Chapman, tying a franchise record. Mitch Moreland homered twice for the A’s, his eighth and ninth of the season. Mark Canha and Starling Marte, the top two hitters in the batting order, each had three RBIs.
It was the largest final margin for a shutout win in franchise history.
Any doubt about the outcome was removed in the fifth inning, when the A’s scored five times against three Cleveland pitchers and took a 10-0 lead.
Included was Moreland’s home run to lead off the inning against Justin Garza, a bases-loaded walk drawn by Elvis Andrus, a run-scoring single from Marte and a two-run single by Matt Olson.
Being aggressive on the bases led to two more runs in the fourth inning and a 5-0 lead, with Canha’s infield out and Marte’s double to left accounting for the RBIs.
Chapman opened with a walk against Morgan, and one out later, Andrus hit behind the runner perfectly with Chapman racing around to third.
Canha was next, and a potential ground ball double play instead because a run-scoring fielders choice when Andrus, running on the pitch, beat the force play at second. Marte’s double brought in the second run.
The A’s struck for three runs in the second inning with the help of free base runners supplied by Morgan, with Sean Murphy hitting a two-run double and a third run scoring when Marte was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
The inning began when Moreland was hit by a pitch, followed by a walk to Josh Harrison. Murphy was next, and his 105 mph shot to the gap went for a double, scoring both runners.
Morgan then walked Chapman, and after a foul pop by Seth Brown and a fly to center by Andrus, Canha hit a bouncer to short. Chapman got and beat the force attempt at second base. That brought up Marte, and Morgan’s pitch clipped his left hand. The ball was originally ruled to have hit the bat for a foul ball, but was overruled on replay.
