By Matthew T.F. Harrington

OAKLAND, Calif. – It had been nearly a year since Oakland Athletics starter Chris Bassitt knew what it was like to see a W next to his name in the Sporting Green the day after one of his starts. It was a feeling he’d only experienced once in his two-year, 16-game major league career. Halfway through his 11^th career start, this time coming against the Baltimore Orioles at O.Co Coliseum, it looked like the youngster would be waiting a little longer.

Orioles Hurler Miguel Gonzalez shut out the A’s for four innings Tuesday night, yielding only one hit before the Oakland offense roughed him up for five runs in the 5^th and 6^th innings combined. Marcus Semien launched a three-run homerun, Brett Lawrie hit a run-scoring triple and Billy Burns picked up an RBI single to support a near-flawless Bassitt (1-4, 2.64 ERA) earn a 5-0 win.

“I don’t really care about ERA, I don’t care about stats,” said Bassitt. “I just care about wins. I don’t care about anything else. I don’t look at any stats. I can tell you what my record is and that’s it. As for runs, I don’t care if it’s one, zero or eight as long as we win.”

Bassitt authored a standout performance, throwing a season high 104 pitches over 7 innings to handcuff the vaunted Orioles (54-52) offense. Bassitt came two pitches shy of matching his career high, 106, set last season in his first start of the year August 20^th against the Tigers. The 26-year-old righty struck out seven Birds, besting a career-high most recently set in his previous outing against Cleveland.

“He’s a really intense kid out there,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. “Since he’s been in the rotation, you see each and every time he goes out there he’s more and more confident.”

Bassitt’s only other win at the major league level also came in a 7-plus inning performance. Before joining the A’s in the Jeff Samardzija trade this offseason, Bassitt helped the Pale Hose to a 2-0 win over the Detroit Tigers, firing 7 2/3 innings of scoreless ball on September 22^nd.

When asked how he felt about getting the win, Bassitt had only one word to describe it. “Relief.”

Bassitt scattered only 5 hits, allowing a single Baltimore baserunner to reach third base. Slugger Chris Davis was the only one to get 90 feet from scoring, opening the 2^nd inning with a double. Bassitt froze Davis after catcher Matt Wieters roped a liner right into Brett Lawrie’s glove. Davis moved to third on a bounce out by J.J. Hardy but was stranded after Bassitt punched out Jimmy Paredes to escape the jam.

“Thank god for Stephen Vogt,” said Bassitt of his battery mate for the night. “Take all the credit and give it to him. I was really fast tonight and he just knew how to slow me down.”

The Orioles would again put a runner on 2^nd base with one out in the next inning, but Manny Machado bounced out to Lawrie. Proving he is no worse for wear in his second game back from a lengthy DL stint, Coco Crisp stole a line drive basehit from Gerardo Parra with a diving catch to save what would have been the go ahead run.

“Coco is back,” said Bassitt emphatically.

“I said all along it’s going to be tough for him not to dive,” said Melvin of his left fielder. “He only plays one way.”

Heading in to the 5th, the A’s had managed only one hit and three baserunners against the stingy Gonzalez. They found an opportune time to piece together a two-hit inning, with Eric Sogard ripping a one-out double down the right field line to start the rally. After Marcus Semien struck out swinging, the rookie leader in hits Billy Burns came up to the plate looking for the clutch hit that proved elusive to the A’s over the previous four innings.

Burns delivered his 98^th base knock, flicking a soft liner into shallow center field. O’s outfielder Adam Jones corralled the ball and fired a seed to home plate hoping to cut down Sogard at the plate. The ball took an Oakland bounce off the back side of the mound, allowing Sogard to come around easy for the 1-0 lead.

The next inning, the A’s struck again off Gonzalez after Billy Butler opened the inning with a ground-rule double. After an Ike Davis grounder to third for the first out, Brett Lawrie sat on a Gonzalez fastball, crushing a triple to the wall in left center field to put the A’s up 2-0 and stick Gonzalez (9-8. 4.32) with the loss.

Reliever Chaz Roe kept Lawrie stranded at first by coaxing a strikeout from Mark Canha before brining Sogard to the plate with two down. Showalter elected to issue the free base, presumably Sogard’s first in his major league career, to bring Semien to the plate.

“Both of us were a little surprised,” said Semien of his and his fellow keystoner Sogard’s reaction. “I don’t think he knew till he looked behind him.”

Semien responded to Showalter’s slight, mashing his 10^th homerun of the season over the wall in left center. Semien’s dinger handed Bassitt a comfy 5-0 lead heading into the final three innings.

“Sometimes you can get a little too fired up,” said Melvin. “But after you hit a homer it’s nice.”

The Fernandos, Rodriguez and Abad, each tossed a scoreless inning to ensure Bassitt’s scoreless start would stand intact and give the A’s (48-60) their third win in four games.

The A’s could pull off the series win against an Orioles team just one game back of the second Wild Card with a win in Wednesday’s series finale. Kendall Graveman takes the mound in the matinee match-up, squaring off against Wei-Yin Chen.