Bido becoming A's Iceman with another frigid gem

CHICAGO -- Osvaldo Bido hails from Los Hidalgos, Dominican Republic, where the temperatures typically hover around the high 70s annually and rarely hit below 65.

Used to tropical climates for most of his life, Bido has drawn the short end of the stick a couple of times already this season when it comes to undesirable weather. First was a frigid afternoon in Denver on April 4 when he took the mound for the Athletics amid snow flurries at Coors Field. Then came Wednesday night at Rate Field, where both A’s and White Sox players bundled up as the first-pitch temperature of 42 degrees felt more like 36 due to those signature Chicago winds howling 10 mph to the east.

“It’s a little difficult for us who like to pitch in warm weather,” Bido told MLB.com in Spanish. “The cold makes it difficult. But I try not to focus on that and focus more on the game.”

To stay warm, Bido kept his jacket on and established a seat on the bench near the large propane heater situated at the end of the dugout. He even snuck a few trips inside the much warmer visiting clubhouse while the A’s were batting.

The elements may not have been ideal, but much like that outing in Denver, Bido quickly acclimated to the foreign conditions and delivered another strong outing for the A’s with 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball in a 3-1 victory over the White Sox.

Limiting Chicago to five hits and a walk with no strikeouts, Bido became the first A’s pitcher to go at least 5 2/3 innings without a punchout in a win since Jared Koenig, who also went 5 2/3 against the Royals on June 19, 2022.

“He’s been getting some soft contact,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “We saw that again tonight. That helps keep his pitch count low. There were no strikeouts, but the only guy in the [White Sox] lineup that looked like he saw him pretty well was [Brooks] Baldwin with a couple of good swings on him.”

Baldwin’s third-inning solo shot on a 3-2 hanging slider was Bido’s only real mistake of the night. He scattered four other singles and generated plenty of weak contact. The average exit velocity on the 21 balls in play against Bido on Wednesday was just 87.2 mph.

“I didn’t strike out anyone, but I was attacking the zone and getting weak contact,” said Bido, who threw strikes for 55 of his 83 pitches. “The strikeouts are things I can’t control. They happen on their own. I attacked the zone and got a lot of flyouts and grounders. No strikeouts, but I pitched my game.”

Had the weather been less severe, Kotsay said he likely would have allowed Bido to finish the sixth. But with the temperature dipping below 40 by that point, the skipper opted for a fresh bullpen with two outs and pulled Bido after a flyout of Andrew Vaughn for his seventh consecutive batter retired.

“Tonight was a tough night and probably the coldest game we’ve played,” Kotsay said. “The conditions were tough, I would imagine, from his standpoint of just trying to spin the ball and be able to feel his hand out there. Both these cold games, he’s done a nice job.”

Nearly four turns through the rotation, Bido is performing as the A’s top starter over the first few weeks of the season. He has now allowed two earned runs or fewer in each of his four starts and is consistently missing barrels – Baldwin’s homer was Bido’s first allowed this season.

There isn’t much flash to Bido’s game. His fastball averaged 93.6 mph on Wednesday. He only recorded seven whiffs. But his ability to frequently pound the zone and keep hitters on the defensive is something the A’s took note of in his flashes of success last season, affording him a chance to enter 2025 with a spot in the rotation that he is looking to grab hold of and run with.

“It’s a big opportunity for me,” Bido said. “I feel super happy to be in the rotation as a starter. I feel proud. I feel like I can’t let myself or the team down. They gave me this opportunity, and I have to take full advantage of it and continue competing.”