Barber: 'Good Guy' Stephen Piscotty leads way as A's drub Angels 21-3

OAKLAND - Bob Melvin hustled into the postgame interview room, still in his uniform. His team had just buried the Los Angeles Angels 21-3. The 21 runs were the most by the A's in more than 18 years. They had 22 hits. The Angels had a catcher pitching by the seventh inning. Eight different Oakland players scored at least two runs. There was a lot to talk about.

But as Melvin headed for the dais, this is what he said: “Don't ask me about Piscotty. I'm tired of talking about him. That's why I benched him (in the sixth inning).”

Melvin had read the room. The A's bats exploded up and down the order against not-Anaheim. But for the second consecutive game, it was Stephen Piscotty who had stood above all. On Wednesday he had tied a career best with five RBIs in a 10-0 win, including a three-run home run. Thursday, Piscotty followed up by murdering Matt Shoemaker's hanging slider with two outs in bottom of the third inning, spinning the scoreboard from 2-1 to 5-1 and opening a valve that set free a rush of scoring.

“Obviously, that's the big blow of the game, and then it kind of snowballed from there,” Melvin said. “He takes a bad swing at the first-pitch slider. I don't know if he's sitting on it or not, but he gets another breaking ball and hits a home run. The way things were going last night and today, that really kind of opened up the floodgates, and guys kind of piled on after that.”

Over the second half of this season, and certainly during September, Piscotty's job has been floodgates-opener. He stands there with his big work gloves and turns the creaky wheel when the A's need it most. This month alone, Piscotty has seven homers (tied for the lead in Major League Baseball) and 22 RBIs (most in MLB).

The ignition has been building for months. Piscotty hit just .160 in May. On May 27, he was batting .222, with three home runs in 45 games. His OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) was a tepid .613. Then he started raking. Piscotty's OPS in June was .899. In July it was .923. And after a small dip in August to .776, it stands at 1.151 in September. That's a Barry Bonds sort of number.

“He's pretty much carrying us these last two months,” A's shortstop Marcus Semien said after Thursday's win.

The timing of Piscotty's turnaround is anything but random. His mother, Gretchen, died May 7 after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for most of a year. If you have known anyone who has battled ALS, you know how brutal it is to watch, how quickly the person changes and diminishes before your eyes.

Piscotty bore this burden while playing baseball at the highest level, and it affected him. And if Gretchen's passing was, in a way, a relief for the family that had watched her suffer, of course it, too, was a lot for Stephen to process.

After the game, Piscotty stood in front of his locker and talked about the 21-run salute and how much fun it is playing for a postseason berth. When the crowd thinned out a bit, I asked him whether his mental state has improved since the start of the season - whether some sort of weight has been lifted.

“That's a deep question,” Piscotty said. “I could go on probably for a while about that.”

He paused a few seconds and gathered his thoughts before continuing: “It was a bit of a …” He sorted through the words a little more. “It was just tough to stay focused,” he finally said. “And now I feel like I can be. I don't know whether I wish that it was different. And obviously, I still wish she was here.”

“He's responded really well after what was a very difficult period,” Melvin had said of Piscotty before the game. “Not just a short period of time - a long period of time he was having to deal with it. So his entire personality's coming out, and the fieriness, I think, kind of surprised some people.”

Losing someone you love is depressing and complicated and exhausting under any circumstance. When your mother is only 55 and was afflicted with a crippling disease, it must be exponentially harder. And living through it in the public eye, as Stephen Piscotty did - well, I can only imagine what that's like.

The sports world took notice of Gretchen's illness when the Cardinals traded Stephen to Oakland last December. They made the trade, in part, for humanitarian reasons. Piscotty could play the game he loves and be closer to his family in Pleasanton. (Piscotty competed at Amador Valley High School, and then at Stanford.) It was a wonderful story, but it removed his ability to grieve in privacy. Piscotty was patient and forgiving through all of it.

“Beyond strong, really,” Semien said. “I don't know how I would be in that situation. But you know he's really leaning on his family, and on us. He's doing great.”

Piscotty, 27, acknowledged that baseball has been a buoy for his family this year. He has been able to throw himself into his work, and his family is along for the ride. I'm sure the whole crew needed a little frivolous joy in their lives. And here are the A's, with baseball's best record since June 15, bearing down on a wild-card spot while clinging to hope for a division championship.

“In caring for my mom, there were people coming from all over to help,” Piscotty said. “Obviously, they knew the story of my being in Oakland. I think that made them kind of fans. I know they're all watching, and there's a cohesive group that I get 20, 30 texts from after every win. It's brought my community of folks even closer together, which is really, really cool.”

Before Thursday's blowout, the Bay Area chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America presented Piscotty with its annual Bill Rigney “Good Guy” award. It was a nod, certainly, to the poise that Piscotty showed throughout his mother's illness. But it wasn't just that. He is almost universally cooperative with reporters before and after games, with an understated sense of humor.

He's pretty easy to root for, and not just because he has a slash line of .270/26/85 right now.

Piscotty thought about his mom all the time while she was sick. He still does, of course. But you know how it is when you are missing someone instead of worrying about them constantly. There's a relief to it.

“I'm a man of faith, and I believe she's watching, she's smiling,” Piscotty said in the clubhouse. “So that gives me a little extra incentive.”

I don't know how all of that works. But if Gretchen Piscotty was indeed checking in on Stephen on Thursday, she probably didn't stop smiling for a second.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.