Field Level Media
May 28, 2021
Chris Bassitt threw the first shutout of his career Thursday night, allowing just two hits in the Oakland Athletics' 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels, who had to scratch scheduled starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani because of bad traffic.
Facing a lineup that included Ohtani as a designated hitter but not a pitcher, Bassitt (5-2) gave up an infield single to Juan Lagares with one out in the second inning and a double to Justin Upton with one out in the ninth en route to the first nine-inning effort of his 77-start career.
The Angels got just one other baserunner against the Oakland right-hander, that coming on an Ohtani leadoff walk in the fourth. Bassitt struck out nine.
Ohtani was expected to be the Angels' starting pitcher in the series opener, but he was on a team bus that got caught in traffic en route from San Francisco to Oakland via the Bay Bridge.
Because Ohtani and the others on his bus were rerouted to take a San Francisco BART train to the Coliseum, the Japanese star didn't show up at the ballpark in time to go through his pregame pitching ritual, so the Angels pushed him back to Friday.
Left-hander Patrick Sandoval pitched brilliantly in an emergency start. He was pulled from a scoreless game after five innings, having allowed five hits and two walks. He struck out four.
Aided by an error, the A's jumped on relievers Aaron Slegers (2-2) and Alex Claudio for all five of their runs in the sixth inning.
Sean Murphy had a two-RBI single, Elvis Andrus a run-scoring hit and Tony Kemp a sacrifice fly in an inning helped along by a one-out, run-scoring throwing error by Angels shortstop David Fletcher.
Bassitt coasted from there until Upton's double threatened both his shutout and complete game in the ninth.
However, the Oakland ace got Ohtani to fly out and Jose Rendon to ground out to end it.
Mark Canha went 3-for-3 with two walks and Stephen Piscotty 2-for-2 for Oakland, which won its second straight by out-hitting the Angels 10-2.
Ohtani finished 0-for-3 with a walk as the Angels saw their three-game winning streak end.
--Field Level Media