OAKLAND, Calif. _ The Oakland A's beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-1, Wednesday night.
Jesus Luzardo had the type of performance that the A's organization hopes to see a lot more of from the 22-year-old left hander in years to come. He was efficient and deadly, rolling through six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. He departed the seventh with one out after giving up his fourth hit of the day, a single to Kole Calhoun. He'd strike out seven and walk two in 6.1 scoreless innings. The best start of his career (granted, he's had five total in the big leagues now).
It was a promising bounce-back performance for the young starter after a particularly rough outing in San Francisco in which he allowed six runs and loads of hard contact in 3.1 innings. The worst start of his career.
Wednesday, his changeup was particularly devastating, again, as he was able to move it front door against right-handed and left-handed batters. And the Diamondbacks were biting at his back-foot slider.
He escaped a two-on, sixth-inning jam with a little help from the corner infield defense. Matt Chapman scooped up a Starling Marte ground ball, got the forceout at third and rifled it to Matt Olson, who made a difficult pick to complete the 5-3 double play. Ramon Laureano chipped in, too, snagging Christian Walker's long fly.
Early innings haven't been kind to the A's offense. Entering Wednesday's game, the A's held a .214 average with 22 home runs and a .638 OPS over the collective one-through-six innings. Not too devastating, but pales in comparison to their late-game offensive stats. From innings seven and beyond, the A's have a .244 average, 14 home runs and an .830 OPS.
They'd buck that trend Wednesday against Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly. With the bases loaded in the first inning, Robbie Grossman hit a ground-rule double, scoring a pair to give the A's a 2-0 lead.
Mark Canha struck in the third inning with a two-run home run, his third of the season. It scored Matt Chapman, who hit his seventh double of the year.
