Ginn surrendered three runs on six hits with four strikeouts in five innings.
“I thought Ginn had some of the better stuff he’s had in awhile,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “I think, overall, they took some good at-bats. They got his pitch count up. The two walks came back to hurt him. That’s kind of the story overall. He pitched really well. He still gave us an opportunity to win.”
The right-hander has allowed three runs or fewer in four of his last five starts, including three of his four starts since returning from the injured list on Aug. 4.
Out of his 23 starts this season, he has allowed four or more runs only five times. He has gone at least five innings in 17 of his 23 starts this season, including his last five outings.
“I felt good,” Ginn said. “I thought I made some good pitches. They hit some balls that found some holes, but overall, I felt good.”
Ginn threw 47 sinkers out of his 94 pitches, getting three whiffs and two strikeouts on the pitch. He entered throwing the sinker 36% of the time overall but 53% of the time when facing right-handed hitters.
He said he threw the sinker half the time because he was facing a primarily right-handed lineup.
“Anytime there’s a bunch of righties in there, I think my sinker is probably my best pitch, so I’m going to throw it a lot more when there’s righties in the lineup,” Ginn said.
Ginn added in 17 sliders, 14 cutters, 10 changeups and six four-seam fastballs, getting two whiffs and a strikeout on each of the slider and changeup and a whiff on both the cutter and four-seamer.
“The sinker was on tonight,” Kotsay said. “He had everything working really, which is a sign that he’s feeling good. They did foul some balls off. They worked a couple deep counts early on and then got his pitch count up to get him out after five.”
Ginn didn’t get much swing and miss – nine total whiffs out of 45 swings – but he did get mostly soft contact, with the Astros finishing with an average exit velocity of 88 mph.
“I think I went out there and pitched my game,” Ginn said. “It’s what I try to do: get soft contact and try to force early swings. They didn’t bounce my way today unfortunately, but [I plan to] keep going out there and attacking the same way I do.”
Where Ginn ran into the most trouble was with the two walks he allowed.
After working out of trouble in the first, Ginn settled down and faced the minimum in the second and third, but he issued a leadoff walk to Isaac Paredes in the fourth. After a Daulton Varsho double, Paredes scored on a sacrifice fly by Christian Walker.
In the fifth, Ginn issued a one-out walk to Nick Allen, who came around to score on an RBI double by Yordan Alvarez.
“The walk to Paredes and then the double down the line, he got himself out of that jam with only giving up one run,” Kotsay said. “The walk to Allen, that’s the one that comes back to hurt you. I think the only contact that was made off J.T. tonight that was an exit velo over 100 [mph] was Alvarez’s ball into the right-center gap [in the fifth].”
Ginn lamented the walks, specifically the one to Allen, who was batting ninth.
“Both walks scored,” Ginn said. “Especially bottom of the lineup walks, you can’t really have that. I have to do a better job of attacking those guys.”