PITTSBURGH -- Making his penultimate start of the season on Saturday night, Athletics rookie Luis Morales found himself in a high-profile matchup against another fellow talented young pitcher in Pirates right-hander Bubba Chandler.
The battle of electric arms lived up to its billing, with both flashing fastballs that routinely approached triple digits throughout the night.
Morales outlasted Chandler by notching his third career quality start with two runs allowed over six innings, but the A’s offense was silenced by Pittsburgh’s pitching staff, held to just one hit and striking out 13 times in a 2-0 loss at PNC Park.
Nonetheless, it was another encouraging performance by Morales, who recently graduated from the A’s Top 30 Prospects list as the organization’s top overall right-handed pitcher.
“We can’t control what we’re up against,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “We were up against two really good young arms. … But I thought it was a great night for Morales. Overall, he gave us an opportunity to win the game and continued to get better as the game went on. Another good start for him.”
The only real damage by either side came on a pair of sweepers left up in the zone by Morales, one to Nick Yorke in the second and another to Bryan Reynolds in the third. Both resulted in solo home runs, providing all the offense needed for the Pirates on a night that saw Chandler, rated the top pitching prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, shut down the A’s across five scoreless innings.
Though Morales’ sweeper technically was his downfall, he didn’t shy away from it as the game went on, utilizing it as the putaway pitch on two of his final three strikeouts as he retired 11 of his final 12 batters faced following Reynolds' homer.
Already armed with a power fastball, which maxed out at 99.9 on Saturday on his strikeout of Jared Triolo, a changeup and a slider, Morales has recently integrated the sweeper, a pitch that has somewhat evolved from a curveball he threw earlier in his career, into his pitch mix.
“I learned it a little while back,” Morales said in Spanish. “It’s going to help me a lot. I also have a slider, so to have a sweeper that gives hitters a different look with different movement is big.”
Continued development of that offering will be key for Morales, whom the A’s believe can become a frontline starter in the near future. To this point, the 22-year-old righty has already impressed plenty. Through nine games (eight starts) with the A’s, Morales carries a 3.07 ERA with 38 strikeouts and 16 walks across 44 innings.
“He’s shown us that he can pitch at this level with his maturity and work ethic,” Kotsay said. “We didn’t really know what we were getting when we got him from Triple-A. He probably didn’t perform as well as expected down there, but a lot of factors go into that. Once we got him here, he’s done everything we’ve asked him. He’s only going to continue to get better.”
There has been a clear gradual improvement by Morales with each outing. He exhibited command issues, which were a concern even as he dominated throughout the Minors, over his first couple of big league outings. After Saturday’s performance of two runs on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts, he’s now issued two walks or fewer in each of his last seven outings.
“His stuff is electric,” A’s catcher Shea Langeliers said. “For him, it’s just about being aggressive in the zone. Get ahead of guys and put guys away. … He’s gotten more comfortable and more confident trusting his stuff. We’re just trying to keep him aggressive in the strike zone.”
For Morales, who has been lauded by Kotsay for his highly competitive nature on the mound, despite a solid final line, Saturday’s start was not good enough for the simple fact that he felt he didn’t do enough for his team to win.
“It was a quality outing, but I didn’t like it too much,” Morales said. “I should have been able to hold them to zero runs, and I couldn’t get it done.”
Lucky for Morales, he’s lined up for one more start during the A’s final homestand of the season next week, leaving him with one clear objective.
“The goal is to win that game,” Morales said.