CHICAGO – Throughout his short time in the Minors, Gage Jump was often described as a “fiery competitor” on the mound, which is why it was no surprise that after allowing four runs over five innings in his Major League debut last week, the left-hander was not very pleased while talking about his milestone day.
“It was fun, but I wanted to take today to focus on competing and winning a ballgame,” Jump said after his first start. “That didn’t happen, so I’m frustrated.”
Hitting the road for his second start, Jump had plenty to be fired up about. The 23-year-old southpaw, who ranks as the A’s No. 3/MLB No. 40 overall prospect by MLB Pipeline, dazzled across seven innings in Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field, showing off a blazing fastball that maxed out at 99.3 mph and allowing just one run on three hits and one walk with five strikeouts to notch his first Major League win.
“It’s awesome,” Jump said. “I’m a competitor. I want to win. I wanted to win last time I threw, and it didn’t happen. So, [winning] tonight, I was stoked about it.”
Jump’s lone run allowed came in the first inning on a groundout by Alex Bregman. Soon after, the rookie locked in, allowing just one hit after the second and retiring his final 14 batters faced to complete his strong seven-inning performance on an efficient 85 pitches.
This was the type of outing that has been lacking from the A’s rotation, as it marked just the sixth time an A’s starter has completed seven innings this season. Jump also became the first A’s pitcher to throw seven innings and allow one or no runs in his first or second career outing since Paul Blackburn in 2017.
“This was the best I’ve seen him,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “Getting out of the first after giving up two hits right away, a lot of times you can let that spiral. He didn’t. That was an outing that we’ve talked about with Gage that you don’t need to strike everybody out. You just need to get people out. That was the blueprint for success for him going forward.”
Even with the win and the stellar final line, Jump was seemingly the one person inside the A’s clubhouse not entirely thrilled with his performance. His own toughest critic, Jump said he takes the result out of his starts and focuses more on pitch execution. By Jump’s evaluation, he lacked execution for most of the night, especially when reaching two-strike counts on hitters.
So, while Jump was happy about pitching deep into the game and getting his first ‘W’ under his belt, he came away from it feeling like he has a lot to work on.
“The result is the result,” Jump said. “But if you look at that result throughout the season, I think, personally, I wouldn’t be in a good spot. I look at the execution afterwards, and if it’s not to par, then I work on it. … Tonight, they just put swings on the ball and missed the barrel.
“The fastball was good, but I have to be able to land the breaking balls when I need them. That’ll bring more swing-and-miss, and that’s what I need right now. But I’ll take going deep in games, obviously.”
The Statcast numbers might suggest that Jump’s stuff was not as electric as his debut, where he racked up 13 whiffs as opposed to just five on Tuesday. Still, if this version of pitching to contact and generating an average exit velocity of 87.8 mph on 17 batted ball events is a "so-so" outing for Jump, just imagine what it might look like when he feels at his best.
Nevertheless, Jump’s teammates were certainly impressed with what they saw and showed it as they doused him inside the visitors' clubhouse postgame with a celebratory beer shower.
In their minds, Jump set the tone with those seven innings on a night where the A’s lineup supplied just enough offense on the strength of Nick Kurtz’s 11th homer of the year – a booming 383-foot game-tying solo blast to left-center in the third – and an RBI single by Zack Gelof in the fourth.
“He commanded the zone for seven innings,” Kurtz said. “It was exactly what we needed. That fueled us to that win.”