OAKLAND, Calif. _ On a day the legendary 'Swingin' A's' teams that won three straight world series titles were honored in a pregame ceremony, Daniel Mengden turned in a performance that would make Rollie Fingers proud.
It wasn't just the handlebar mustache that made Mengden look like Fingers out on the mound, the right-hander's brilliant month of May continued as he dominated the Diamondbacks in Saturday's 3-0 victory in front of 17,580 fans at the Coliseum.
At just 93 pitches after eight innings, manager Bob Melvin allowed Mengden to go out to the mound to begin the ninth inning with closer Blake Treinen warming up in the bullpen if needed. Turns out that was unnecessary.
Mengden retired the final three batters in order to finish the complete game two-hit shutout, the second of his career, at just 102 pitches.
The wide range of velocity in Mengden's pitches kept Diamondbacks hitters off balance throughout the day. Featuring a curveball around 73 mph and fastball near 94 mph, Mengden struck out five batters and did not allow a walk. He threw a first-pitch strike to 23 of his 30 batters faced.
Entering the day with a 1.46 ERA in four starts in the month of May, Mengden improved to 5-4 on the season and lowered his ERA to 2.85 on the season.
The A's only had five hits on the day, but they were big ones. Mark Canha, Matt Joyce, and Chad Pinder all hit solo home runs.
