Osvaldo Bido took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, Seth Brown stroked three hits and the host Oakland Athletics blanked the rival San Francisco Giants 2-0 on Saturday.
Scott Alexander, Grant Holman, T.J. McFarland and Michel Otanez completed Oakland’s 10th shutout of the season by combining for three innings of relief, helping the A’s guarantee themselves of at least a split in their four-game season series with the Giants.
The teams split a two-game set in San Francisco last month.
Coming off a stellar outing against the Toronto Blue Jays, Bido (4-3) duplicated that effort with another six shutout innings. He allowed just one hit, which came on a chopper in front of the plate that Grant McCray beat out for a single with one out in the sixth.
Bido struck out six and walked two, retiring the first 14 Giants he faced before Mike Yastrzemski drew a two-out walk in the fifth.
Giants rookie Hayden Birdsong (3-3) matched zeros with Bido before the A’s were the first ones on the scoreboard in the fifth. Singles by Brown and Zack Gelof set the stage for a Lawrence Butler sacrifice fly on Birdsong’s last pitch of the night, giving Oakland a 1-0 lead.
Birdsong was charged with just the one run on three hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out five.
The A’s tacked on their second and final run in the sixth, when Brown’s third single of the game brought home Miguel Andujar, who had doubled.
Holman, making his major league debut, and McFarland stranded Giants in scoring position in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, before Otanez struck out three of the five men he faced in the ninth for his first big-league save.
McCray and Mark Canha teamed up for all four Giants hits and joined Brown as the only players in the game with multiple hits. The contest featured just 10 total hits, six by the A’s, with no triples or home runs.
–Field Level Media