WEST SACRAMENTO -- Gage Jump has reached an interesting juncture in his rookie season.
Entering Tuesday night’s start against the Twins at Sutter Health Park, Jump was already at a total of 120 innings pitched between the Minors and Majors this season, an ongoing career high. He threw a total of 112 2/3 innings last year in his first season as a professional.
How a young pitcher responds to exceeding his innings limits is always an intriguing storyline, one Jump will face in each start from here on out. Will that buildup of innings take its toll?
“I think we’re just going to monitor how he recovers from each start,” manager Mark Kotsay said before the game. “I don’t know if there’s really any data that proves an excess amount of innings on top of [the previous] year results in injury. That being said, we definitely want to make sure that, physically, he’s feeling good. We continue to build him.”
Jump certainly showed no signs of fatigue Tuesday. The 23-year-old left-hander set the tone for the Athletics in a 4-2 victory by limiting the Twins to two runs on three hits and two walks with nine strikeouts across 6 1/3 innings.
Coming off a pair of so-so outings, Jump was on the attack early on and made quick work of Minnesota’s lineup early, looking more like the top prospect who burst onto the scene back in May and posted a 2.04 ERA through his first six starts. He did not give up his first hit of the game until the fourth, when a high popup by Royce Lewis with two outs fell just beyond the mound despite all four infielders within range of what was ruled an infield single.
Jump kept the Twins off the board until the seventh, when a one-out RBI double by Kaelen Culpepper spelled the end of his outing as he departed at 94 pitches with a 4-1 lead at the time.
“It seemed like from pitch one, everything was in sync,” Kotsay said. “His mechanics looked great. He made a conscious effort to stay on line and pound the zone. I don’t want to say it was his best outing, but it was definitely one of his top outings. For him to get into the seventh and only give up an infield single, really, to that point, I thought it was a great night for him.”
Nothing about Jump’s stuff would suggest he can’t finish the final month-plus of the season strong. His electric fastball -- which generated seven of his 13 whiffs -- averaged 97 mph and maxed out at 98.6, maintaining that velocity into the seventh.
“I feel great,” Jump said. “At this point [in the season], you kind of learn how to listen to your body. Whether that’s cutting back on stuff in the weight room or training room, you kind of learn those things. Overall, I’m feeling really good.”
It’s not just all about the fastball for Jump, though. A big focus for him the rest of this season is the development of his changeup, which Kotsay and the A’s coaching staff believes will help him pitch deeper into games and not have to be so heavily reliant on the punchout.
After his changeup totals were in the single digits in his previous two outings, Jump fired 16 on Tuesday, solely against right-handed hitters. He utilized it as the putaway pitch on two of his nine strikeouts. More importantly, he felt good about throwing it in any count and how he was locating it, even the one he threw on his final pitch of the night, which resulted in that RBI double by Culpepper.
“I was really happy with [my changeup],” Jump said. “I was just talking to [Jeffrey] Springs about it and knowing when to throw it and who to throw it to. I’m comfortable throwing it in any count. The one to Culpepper at the end, maybe that was just the wrong pitch, but I was still happy with where I threw it.”