Oakland Athletics starter Ken Waldichuk pitches once every five days.
The left-hander happily observes rookie second baseman Zack Gelof in the interim.
“Every time he’s up, you stop what you’re doing and you watch him go,” Waldichuk said.
Gelof, 23, enters Saturday night’s contest against the host Chicago White Sox with hits in 13 of his past 15 games and a .333 batting average in August.
He delivered an RBI double to cap a five-run second inning during Friday’s 12-4 victory in Chicago. He hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in Thursday’s series-opening 8-5 win.
The blast marked Gelof’s 10th career home run in 36 games.
“It’s great. He showed us signs during spring training. He did everything possible to make this team,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said. “We felt like he needed a little bit more time in Triple-A. He went to Triple-A, didn’t put his head down, didn’t mope, didn’t pout. Worked his tail off there. He’s getting his opportunity now to kind of show us why he should have started the season here.”
Oakland has won four of its last five games, while Chicago has lost four of five and 10 of 13. The A’s will turn to struggling lefty JP Sears (2-10, 4.61 ERA) as they try to keep their surge going.
Sears is 0-3 with an 8.00 ERA in four August starts covering 18 innings, including a home loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday in which he surrendered seven runs and nine hits in four innings.
The White Sox roughed up Sears in his only previous start against them on Sept. 8, allowing six runs and eight hits in two innings. Yoan Moncada connected for two home runs against Sears, who also surrendered a long ball to Elvis Andrus.
Chicago will counter on Saturday with right-hander Touki Touissant, who took a no-decision at Oakland on July 2 after allowing two runs and three hits in 3 2/3 innings with four walks and five strikeouts.
Toussaint (1-6, 5.30) is 0-0 with a 2.77 ERA in three career appearances against Oakland, including two starts, with 17 strikeouts in 13 innings.
He’ll aim to improve his control Saturday. Touissaint has walked 18 in 18 1/3 innings over his four August starts. On Monday, he walked four Seattle Mariners in as many innings while allowing seven runs and seven hits in a 14-2 loss.
“Everyone across the league kind of knows I walk guys, so they just did a good job of waiting me out,” Toussaint said.
Tim Anderson had two of Chicago’s six hits Friday. He has six hits in three games since returning from a five-game suspension for his role in an Aug. 5 fight at Cleveland.
The A’s have clinched the season series with the White Sox, outscoring Chicago 41-27 while winning four of five games.
The White Sox have allowed double-digit runs at home eight times this season while scoring at least 10 runs at Guaranteed Rate Field just once.
–Field Level Media
