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Oakland manager Bob Melvin said Bassitt will be
followed by left-hander Sean Manaea in Game 2.
Astros manager Dusty Baker said right-hander Lance McCullers Jr.
(3-3, 3.93 ERA) will start Game 1, with left-hander Framber
Valdez (5-3, 3.57) pitching Game 2.
Bassitt (5-2, 2.29 ERA) has been sensational over his last five
starts -- four regular season, one playoff -- by going 4-0 and
allowing just two runs over 33 2/3 innings.
The most recent outing was a win over the Chicago White Sox in
Game 2 of the first-round series when he gave up one run and six
hits over seven innings in Oakland's 5-3 triumph.
Bassitt's stellar stretch began with seven shutout innings in a
win over the Astros on Sept. 7. He also faced Houston on Aug. 29
and suffered the loss by allowing four runs and six hits over
three innings.
The 31-year-old said he is focused more on his job than the
Astros' lineup.
"I'm just trying to be myself," Bassitt said. "I'm not worried
what they can do with their lineup, honestly. I know what they
can do as a lineup, I know what good of hitters they have. I'm
just trying to be myself, I'm not thinking much about what they
can do."
Manaea (4-3, 4.50) hasn't pitched since Sept. 23 when he gave up
three runs and six hits over six innings in a no-decision
against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was bypassed in the series
against the White Sox.
Manaea was itching to get a postseason start to make amends for
his poor outing in last season's AL wild-card game. In that
contest, he served up three homers and allowed four runs and
four hits in just two innings during a 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay
Rays.
"He wants another opportunity. He's quite a competitor," Melvin
said of Manaea. "For a jovial guy, he gets fired up to pitch. He
understood how we were going about it in the last series but was
itching to pitch.
"Any time you have a memory like that, you want to get back and
erase that. It's important for him to pitch again, and I think
he's ready for it."
McCullers is 5-2 with a 4.04 ERA in nine career starts against
the A's.
--Field Level Media
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