OAKLAND — J.J. Bleday hit the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the ninth inning for a home run as the Athletics beat the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 before the largest Coliseum crowd of the season.
Bleday’s blast came against Chad Green (1-1) and went into the right field bleachers that were adorned with “Sell” signs on a scaled-back reverse boycott night that also included a postgame fireworks show.
Scott Alexander pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and Mason Miller (1-0) retired the side in the ninth with a pair of strikeouts. Miller, the A’s top candidate for the All-Star team, had 12 saves but it was his first major league win.
The home run was Bleday’s ninth after he was challenged to get stronger in the offseason.
“The maturity that he’s shown from last season to this season, the work that he put in in the weight room really has kind of shown up,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “Not just from a home run standpoint but from a physicality standpoint, we really stressed to JJ that he could push himself harder this offseason than he had in the past. Tonight he got a great swing on a heater and he’s been doing that, taking great at-bats.”
The A’s improved to 26-39, with Toronto falling to 30-32.
The game was played in two hours and seven minutes in what was an efficient pitcher’s duel between former A’s right-hander Chris Bassitt and A’s left-hander Hogan Harris.
Austin Adams, who came on for Harris in the seventh, gave up one run on a single to Bo Bichette to tie the score 1-1. The hit brought in Vladimir Guerrero, who led off the inning with a twisting drive to right that Seth Brown couldn’t come up with in the corner against the fence.
The Athletics broke through or the game’s first run in the sixth against Bassitt, with Max Schuemann scoring on a wild pitch.
Schuemann led off the inning with a single, just the second hit of the game for the A’s, with Abraham Toro following with another single and sending Schuemann to third. After Miguel Andujar struck out, Bassitt threw an exploding breaking ball in the dirt that Alejandro Kirk couldn’t handle, with Schuemann coming in to score. After J.J. Bleday grounded out, Toro was stranded at third when Brent Rooker popped to second.
Bassitt, who basically learned to pitch with the A’s, came in with a 2.39 earned run average at the Coliseum and gave up just one earned run Friday night. He pitched eight innings, giving up four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
In his last three years with the A’s Bassitt was 27-11, and he explained to reporters why he picked up dirt from the Coliseum field and put it in his pocket.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever see this place again,” Bassitt said.
“Bass showed up tonight. He had his bag of tricks,” Kotsay said. “When you talk about the (Bob Melvin) era and before that, he grew up in this organization and you saw it tonight the competitor that he is.”
Harris, 27, seems to save his best performances for nights when A’s fans show up to protest ownership’s decision to move the franchise to Sacramento and Las Vegas.
Harris matched Bassitt and shut out Toronto for six innings, giving up three hits with two walks and three strikeouts. His night was punctuated with a strikeout of Justin Turner to end the sixth, slamming a palm into his glove as he went into the dugout. He threw 91 pitches with 55 strikes.
“You never complain about no runs,” Harris said. “I was really proud about how I was able to slow things down.”
The previous best game by Harris came in last year’s “reverse boycott” game against Tampa Bay on June 13. In that game, Harris took over in the second for opener Shintaro Fujinami and gave up four hits and one earned run in seven innings in picking up the win before a crowd of 27,759.
“Hogan’s put a lot of work in, and the adjustments he made, it’s not easy to be a guy that’s had options, been up and down, but he’s handled it with a great mindset and tonight was an outing that showed his focus and determination,” Kotsay said.
Erceg getting closer
Relief pitcher Lucas Erceg (right forearm strain) had an encouraging bullpen session and looks to be the closest to returning of the nine current A’s on the injured list.
“He had a 20-pitch side yesterday that he came out of really well,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We’ll do it again Sunday, a little more aggressively. Velo was very good and elbow was good. Those are good signs.”
Most everyone else is still a ways off, including starters Alex Wood (left rotator cuff tendonitis), Paul Blackburn (stress reaction right foot) and Ross Stripling (right elbow strain) and reliever Kyle Muller (left shoulder tendonitis)