WEST SACRAMENTO -- Slade Cecconi shuffled away from the pitcher’s mound while watching the completion of the double play that he started. Once second baseman Angel Martínez finished the 1-4-3 twin killing, Cecconi pumped his fist and strutted back toward the Guardians’ dugout, wagging his head like a rock star.
That moment in the seventh inning on Sunday was a prime time for Cecconi to celebrate his dominant afternoon on the mound. He turned in his best start with the Guardians by tossing seven scoreless innings in their 3-0 win over the A’s at Sutter Health Park.
Cecconi limited the A’s to six hits and one walk while striking out three. He only needed 79 pitches (53 strikes) thanks to a highly efficient final four frames. Cecconi threw seven, 10, 10 and seven pitches in the fourth through seventh innings. He recorded 16 of his outs, including two double plays, on three or fewer pitches.
“Slade pitched today,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “He got quick outs, got some punchouts when he needed to, and it just seemed like he wasn't slowing down.”
Cecconi did it with a diverse mix of pitches. He threw his four-seam fastball (29 times), curveball (14), sinker (14), slider (13), changeup (six) and cutter (three).
“The execution of everything really felt good today,” Cecconi said. “There wasn't one pitch that was the difference maker. The sinker definitely was probably pitch 1A, but we had a good mix of everything going.”
The 14 sinkers were tied for the most Cecconi has thrown in a start this season. (He threw 14 on May 31 vs. the Angels.) The A’s went 0-for-6 with four groundouts against that offering. Meanwhile, he had previously thrown just one cutter all season (May 23 against the Tigers).
Cecconi knew heading into last offseason he wanted to add both fastballs to his repertoire, in part to keep opponents from sitting on his four-seamer. Opponents hit .329 against that pitch last season. They had two hits against his four-seamer on Sunday (all singles), one against his cutter (single) and zero against his sinker.
“We've been searching for ways to use it,” Cecconi said of the cutter. “The pitch itself hasn't changed. It's just been finding ways to weave it into the game plan. I think we figured out today it's either that early groundball pitch to a lefty or a deep [inside pitch] to a lefty to set up something else.”
We saw that play out in the first. A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz fouled off a first-pitch cutter from Cecconi. He then took a changeup for a ball before flying out to right fielder Nolan Jones on a curveball. Tyler Soderstrom hit the single off Cecconi’s cutter on a grounder through the right side of the infield in the second inning.
Vogt has said at times this season that the Guardians are still getting to know Cecconi, which makes sense. They acquired the right-hander from the D-backs on Dec. 21 last offseason. He missed a portion of Spring Training due to a left oblique strain and then opened the season on the 15-day IL. Cecconi did not make his season debut in the Majors until May 17, and Sunday was just his seventh start for Cleveland.
What his outing showed is when he’s got his full arsenal working, he’s dangerous.
“It’s having all those pitches and being able to execute all of them,” catcher Austin Hedges said. “If he’s got all of them working, I think that's why you saw so many quick innings. It’s not necessarily going to be punchies, but it's going to be lots of weak contact, inefficiency, and it's gonna allow him to go deep into games. Those are a lot of games we win.”
Cleveland finished off its nine-game West Coast road trip with a 4-5 record. After the Guardians were swept in Seattle last weekend, they won consecutive series at the Giants and A’s.
“Obviously, we would have liked to have played better in Seattle and taken one of those,” Vogt said. “But you come on a West Coast trip playing against these three teams, and you come out of it with two series W's, that's a successful trip.
“Obviously, we need to get better. We need to keep winning games. We need to keep working. But we’ve got a long way to go. I couldn't be more proud of the way our group was resilient down the stretch here on this last bit of the West Coast trip.”