Starting pitcher Chris Bassitt made his return to face the Athletics and dominated his former team in the New York Mets' 9-2 victory on Friday at the Oakland Coliseum.
The 33-year-old went eight innings while giving up two earned runs on six hits, and picked up his 15th win of the season for New York, who traded for the veteran in March and sent two right-handed pitching prospects, J.T. Ginn and Adam Oller, to the A's.
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"Yeah, obviously, they're very special to me, but yeah, overall, it was it was good," Bassitt told reporters (h/t SNY) after the win. "I know a lot of those guys."
Bassitt also revealed that there was extra motivation on his end to get the win over his former teammates due to the bragging rights there were on the line.
"I mean, it's more so they don't get to talk crap to me," Bassitt added. "I mean, that's basically it. Overall. Yeah, like I said, it was good, good win."
Oakland couldn't figure out Bassitt, who pitched to contact and didn't rely on strikeout stuff. For A's manager Mark Kotsay, it was a familiar performance from the veteran pitcher that he has seen countless times when Bassitt was in the Bay Area.
Oakland Athletics
However, it was a different experience being on the other side of those outings.
"That's vintage Bassitt right there," Kotsay told reporters after the loss. "I think overall, two strikeouts on the night and a ton of weak, contact ground balls, a couple of double plays.
"So we've seen him doing that here. He did his job at keeping the ball down at the bottom of the zone and he got some calls down there on [Seth Brown]. But overall, tough night offensively, really, to get anything going."
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It doesn't get any easier for the A's as the Mets will be sending one of the better pitchers in baseball in Jacob deGrom (5-2, 2.32 ERA) to the mound for New York to continue what Bassitt did on Friday.
Meanwhile, Oakland will counter with Ken Waldichuk (0-2, 7.13 ERA), who is still searching for his first win with the A's.