This story was excerpted from Martín Gallegos’ A’s Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MESA, Ariz. -- As Paul Blackburn and Shea Langeliers emerged from the A’s bullpen at Hohokam Stadium just minutes before Wednesday’s Cactus League game against the Cubs, the two shared what could best be described as a nervous laugh.

“All right,” Blackburn said to Langeliers. “Let’s see how this goes.”

Blackburn had just thrown a “pretty bad” bullpen in which both he and Langeliers agreed that “nothing was there” as far as pitch execution. It sure felt like a sign that disaster was about to strike as soon as he took the mound and threw his first pitch.

About an hour later, Blackburn was walking off the mound after freezing up David Bote with a 93 mph fastball for strike three. The punchout capped what was a thoroughly dominant effort. Blackburn faced the minimum over six hitless innings on 64 pitches in the A’s 3-1 victory over the Cubs. He allowed just one walk and racked up a plethora of early-count outs, retiring 15 of his 18 batters faced on four pitches or less.

Earlier in his career, Blackburn might have equated that horrible bullpen he threw before the game with a guaranteed incoming horrible start. But as he prepares to enter his eighth big league season, the 30-year-old righty has learned to not put too much stock into an undesirable warmup, with the help of a legend.

“There’s a video of Adam Wainwright going around,” Blackburn said. “He was mic’d up before a game, and he talked about how warming up for the game is just warming up for the game. Don’t take any consideration of your pregame bullpen into the game.”

That moment took place on Aug. 28, 2022, before a Sunday Night Baseball matchup on ESPN between the Cardinals and Braves at Busch Stadium. Wainwright was mic’d up for the entirety of his pregame warmup routine and offered some words of wisdom.

“Just remember you young pitchers out there,” Wainwright said. “Warming up is just warming up. Don’t put too much into it. Throwing a ball in the dirt or throwing the ball high does not mean you’re going to do that in the game. You hear a lot of people say, ‘Oh, I knew I wasn’t going to pitch good because I warmed up like crap.’ That’s just not the way it is. … Fall in love with the process, not the result.”

Blackburn certainly took those words to heart.

“Ever since I heard that, that’s just what I do,” Blackburn said. “I go down [to the bullpen] and make sure my body is ready to go. If my bullpen is good, it’s good. If it’s bad, it’s bad. Usually, when it’s bad, it’s really good in the game.”

Instead of throwing a dud, Blackburn went out and turned in without question the best outing by an A’s starter this spring. He utilized all six of his pitches and kept Chicago’s hitters guessing wrong throughout. It was the type of outing that Blackburn, a 2022 All-Star, has proven capable of producing in the past. It’s also one the A’s hope to see more of in 2024 as they count on him to be a key member of their rotation.

“He’s not going to blow people away,” Langeliers said of Blackburn. “He’s not an ‘extra stuff’ guy. But he’s so good at mixing and matching pitches and forcing weak contact. He’s going to get quick outs.

“He’s looked really good this spring. He’s always working on something. He’s got command of every single pitch he throws, but he’s always trying to add to the arsenal. An example [on Wednesday] was the cutter. He wants the cutter up and the cutter down, and he wants to perfect both of them. There’s always something that he’s got in mind going into a game that he wants to try out that day, and he’s looked really good doing it.”