June 9th, 2024
Martin Gallegos
@MartinJGallegosOAKLAND -- The excitement over Luis Medina’s return from the injured list was only enhanced by the sharpness displayed in his first game back, when he dazzled with six strikeouts and only an unearned run allowed in 5 2/3 innings against the Braves.
Medina’s second start off the IL was a reminder of the highs and lows that are still likely to come his way as he develops his electric arm at the Major League level. The 25-year-old battled command issues throughout Saturday’s 7-0 A’s loss to the Blue Jays at the Coliseum, as he allowed six runs on five hits and five walks with one strikeout in 4 2/3 innings.
“It’s part of the development,” said A’s manager Mark Kotsay. “These young pitchers can come out and throw a game like he did in Atlanta where he was crisp and pounding the zone with all his pitches for strikes. Today, he came out fighting his command and not confident out there with his ability to land and execute pitches.”
In that outing last week in Atlanta, Medina thrived with his ability to get ahead in the count with first-pitch strikes and work his curveball off his high-velocity fastball, which maxed out at 97.6 mph that day.
Saturday was a stark contrast from Medina’s previous outing. This time around, he struggled to locate any of his pitches in the zone, especially early on. Medina began the game by walking three of his first four batters faced, and though he limited the damage to one run in the opening frame, Toronto stuck to its plan of challenging him to consistently come into the zone with his pitches, something Medina had trouble with throughout an up-and-down 2023 rookie campaign.
“Medina, he’s got great stuff,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “He can be a little bit erratic in the zone. So you want to be ready for something in the middle, whether it’s a fastball or a breaking ball, and kind of just be stubborn with it. You can’t budge on pitches on the corners. Again, if he’s showing that he has command of everything, then you have to adjust a little bit. But you have to be stubborn in the middle and you’ve got to do some damage.”
Despite the control issues, Medina battled and even saw some success pitching through traffic to keep the Blue Jays off the board from the second through the fourth. The fifth, however, was his downfall, as he allowed back-to-back RBI hits to Bo Bichette and Danny Jansen before getting pulled following a two-out walk issued to Daniel Vogelbach.
Medina’s one strikeout was a career-low for a start. His average fastball velocity of 94.3 mph on Saturday was also nearly two ticks down from his yearly average of 96.1 mph, though Kotsay did not believe there was anything physically wrong with the right-hander -- it just came down to a lack of comfort on the mound.
“He was just trying to throw strikes any way possible today,” Kotsay said of Medina. “He didn’t look comfortable. After the first, he settled in a little bit and got through three innings. Then that fifth inning, he left balls in the middle of the plate and got touched up a bit.”
Coming away with a victory on Saturday was going to be a challenge regardless based on the performance of Toronto’s Kevin Gausman. The right-hander twirled a complete-game shutout on 109 pitches, marking the first complete-game shutout thrown against Oakland since Domingo German’s perfect game on June 28, 2023.
“He established the fastball at the bottom of the zone,” Kotsay said of Gausman. “When you’re throwing the fastball at the bottom of the zone with the splitter he has, it makes it tough because you don’t want to swing at the ball down. … He played his pitches really well, and the result was probably his best performance of his career today.”
Gausman, who struck out 10, stole the show with his devastating splitter. Of his 38 splitters thrown, he generated 25 swings and 14 whiffs, stifling A’s hitters by throwing it any time in any count.
Saturday marked the second time the A’s have been held scoreless in three days. On Thursday, Seattle’s Bryan Woo shut them down for six scoreless frames.
“I think everyone in here expects higher of themselves, no matter who is on the mound,” A’s designated hitter Brent Rooker said. “The work is constant. Every one of us will continue to work hard and I know we’ll be able to put up some better offensive performances.”
