A’s Chris Bassitt busts out trident after shutout vs. Angels

What happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse.

Unless you throw a shutout.

Chris Bassitt went the distance for the first time in his career while blanking the Los Angeles Angels in Thursday night’s 5-0 victory. During his postgame interview with NBC Sports Bay Area, Bassitt busted out a large, golden trident that appeared to be nearly seven feet tall.

Bassitt told Dallas Braden that he found the trident during the A’s 13-game win streak and that Sean Manaea eventually bought it for the team’s designated “rider of the wave.”

“It’s been our little thing inside [the clubhouse] and I guess he just said tonight’s the night we break it out,” Bassitt said.

😂 he said that thing weighs 40 pounds pic.twitter.com/nQH89XkCa4

— The Rickey Henderson of Blogs (@RickeyBlog) May 28, 2021

Consider Bassitt pitted in a throaty pipeline after that performance, brah.

You wanna buy a trident? Got an extra $340 lying around and it could be all yours from Amazon! Bassitt said the thing weighed 40 pounds but this one is advertised as 11.02 pounds so you don’t wear yourself out.

Lol can you imagine what the A’s players were doing in the clubhouse with this thing? Did anyone ever get poked by that bad boy?

The game was originally billed as a pitcher’s duel between Bassitt and Shohei Ohtani, but the Angels couldn’t get over the Bay Bridge due to an accident then ran into BART issues. Classic.

First, wow, what an honor to host a baseball superstar like Shohei Ohtani on BART.

We did not experience any issues on our end. We confirmed with Operations Control Center there was no delay for any Coliseum-heading train during the Bay Bridge incident. https://t.co/Ve3E4McdlJ

— SFBART (@SFBART) May 28, 2021

Bassitt allowed two hits and a walk while striking out nine. He also became Neptune for a night.

Adding the Sergio Romo-inspired slider to his repertoire this season has elevated Bassitt’s game to another level. Catchers say he’s basically got six pitches — four-seam, two-seam, cutter, slider, curve and changeup — and when he’s painting corners with 94-95 while mixing in offspeed it’s hard to guess correctly.

The A’s ace might have posted a 2.29 ERA in 2020 but looks like an even tougher at-bat this season.