Tuesday night in Chicago was the first game that Gage Jump pitched in a big-league ballpark since he made his major-league debut, and it sure looked like he belonged.

After an up-and-down five innings of work at home in West Sacramento in his MLB debut, Jump took on the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, and shut down the offense for seven innings and earned the first W of his career, flying it proudly in the Athletics 2-1 win.

Chicago scratched across its only run of the game in the bottom of the first on a fielder's choice where the A's wanted the out more than to prevent the run. Jump had runners on second and third with nobody out just seven pitches into the game. His 17th pitch of the game got him out of the first with just the one run allowed. 

From there, the 23-year-old left-hander hit the leadoff batter in the second, and allowed a one-out single to Michael Busch, but was otherwise untouchable. The A's No. 3 prospect according to MLB Pipeline finished with seven innings pitched, giving up one earned run, three hits, one walk, a hit batter and five strikeouts. 

"The changeup was a plus pitch tonight," Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said postgame. "He used it very effectively. About three weeks ago, I called him, personally, and talked to him about developing this pitch because of the importance of it at the major league level. Hopefully this instills a little more confidence in it." 

Jump admitted after the game that in his first outing, he wasn't quite as aggressive after allowing some hits in his debut, and on Tuesday in Chicago he was just going after guys. After the Pete Crow-Armstrong hit in the first, he noticed that it didn't go very far, so he figured that for them to do damage, they'd really have to drill one of his pitches. 

"Especially with the wind blowing in tonight, I felt like I was in a good spot." 

In 1999, the A's called up Tim Hudson on June 8 for his MLB debut, and he would end up becoming the first member of the A's "Big 3" that propelled them to the postseason year after year. Moneyball doesn't happen without Hudson, Mark Mulder or Barry Zito, and Huddy was the leader of that group. 

In his own MLB debut, he tossed five innings on the road in San Diego, giving up three runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out 11. He also went 1-for-1 with a walk at the plate. This was a Padres team that had just been to the World Series the year before, so certainly not an easy assignment for a debut.

In his second start, this time against the Los Angeles Dodgers at home in Oakland, he tossed seven innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on seven hits, two walks and striking out eight in the process. 

He went on to finish the year going 11-2 with a 3.23 ERA across 136 1/3 innings of work. He also racked up 3.9 bWAR in 21 starts and finished fifth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. 

Jump was getting early weak contact throughout Tuesday's game, and could have probably finished another inning given that he was at just 85 pitches. This was a start the A's needed, and it came from a top prospect making just his second MLB start. 

Kotsay told reporters after the game, "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. I think that was the blueprint for success for him going forward." 

Filling up the strike zone and eating innings defined a large portion of Hudson's game in the green and gold. 

Could he be set to follow in Hudson's footsteps and become the leader of a new "Big 3," comprised of Jump, Jamie Arnold and Wei-En Lin? It's certainly possible. Hudson was 23 when he debuted, like Jump, while Mulder and Zito debuted in 2000 at the age of 22. Lin will be 21 next year, while Arnold is 22 right now.

Because Jump was able to roll through seven innings, the A's had options when it came to the latter innings of the game. 

In last week's Green and Gold Standard column, we talked about the A's home and road splits, and the opportunity that could be upon the A's to use those splits to maximize their roster. 

One of the players we pointed out was Scott Barlow, who has yet to allow a run on the road this season, and wouldn't you know it — the first road game since that column came out, manager Mark Kotsay went to Barlow in the ninth inning of a 2-1 game. 

The first two batters reached on a walk and a single before Barlow buckled down and struck out Alex Bregman on a nasty curveball, and then got Seiya Suzuki to fly out to right field. Kotsay turned to left-hander Hogan Harris because of Ian Happ's splits, and the southpaw closed out the game.

While it was a stress-inducing bottom of the ninth for the fanbase, without a certified closer at the back of the bullpen, using the best pieces available in each situation — and making those adjustments when necessary — is the team's best bet to secure as many wins as possible.