Photo credit: @Athletics

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s beat the Tigers Wednesday evening in Detroit by a score of 3-0. The A’s recalled Chris Bassitt from Nashville to pitch due to the injury to Daniel Mengden. Bassitt was making his fourth start of the season for Oakland. He pitched well in his first start but had two bad games and was 0-3 for the season and had spent a lot of time shuttling between Oakland and Nashville. Bassitt his best game of the year as he went six innings and allowed no runs and just two hits. He struck out five and the only negative was the five walks he issued to the Tiger hitters. Bassitt had to be just as good as Tigers’ starter Mike Fiers also pitched very well.

The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth inning. The A’s put the first run of the game on the board when Matt Joyce led off with a single to get things going. Fiers had to pitch to the A’s hottest hitter Jed Lowrie. Lowrie, who has been on a tear, doubled to right field. A’s third base coach Matt Williams did not hesitate as he did not put the stop sign up for Matt Joyce. Joyce scored, and Lowrie recorded his 22nd double and 54th RBI of the season to give the A’s the lead 1-0.

A’s manager Bob Melvin brought in Yusmeiro Petit to pitch the seventh. Petit did his job and kept the Tigers scoreless in the seventh and eighth innings.

The A’s scored two insurance runs in the ninth. Alex Wilson was pitching for Detroit. With one out, Franklin Barreto reached on an infield single. Josh Phegley followed with a line shot down the left field line. The speedy Barreto scored all the way from first. The next hitter, Dustin Fowler, blasted a ball to that hit high off the right-field wall to drive in Phegley. The A’s led 3-0.

Bob Melvin was not able to use his closer, Blake Treinen, to finish the game. Treinen had worked the last two games. Melvin brought in rookie Lou Trivino to face the Tigers. Trivino set the Tigers down in order to earn his second save of the year.

Game Notes: The A’s are 7-2 on the road trip and go for the sweep Thursday afternoon in Detroit. The A’s improve to 43-38 and are five games over the .500 mark for the first time since the 2014 season. Chriss Bassitt is now 1-3, and he won his first game since the 2015 season. Bassitt missed the 2016 season due to Tommy John surgery, and his recovery was much longer than expected.

The A’s did not hit a home run, and their 27 consecutive game streak of hitting at least one home run in road games came to an end. The 27-game streak is a new Major League record.

“We put home run swings on them,” Melvin said. “We just didn’t get rewarded for them.”

Time of game was 3 hours and 11 minutes and 23,961 fans watched the game.

Up Next: The A’s Sean Manaea will go to the mound seeking his eighth win of the year on Thursday. Manaea’ record is 7-6. He will be opposed by Michael Fulmer. Fulmer is 3-6 and has a 4.17 ERA. The game will start at 10:10 am PDT on MLB Network.