A’s take opening series from Angels
OAKLAND, Calif. — Mark
Canha homered for the first time this season, Chris Bassitt escaped a big jam and the Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-0 on Monday as the teams concluded their season-opening wraparound series.
Oakland took three of four games in the series.
Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons appeared to roll his left ankle when he ran out an infield single in the ninth and landed hard on the bag. He rolled onto the grass clearly in discomfort before exiting for a pinch runner. Manager Joe Maddon didn’t have an immediate update afterward.
“I’ve just got to wait, we’ve got to see the doc, then I’ll get a report back from the medical staff,” Maddon said. “I don’t know enough yet.”
As word spread around baseball about a coronavirus outbreak among the Miami Marlins that kept the club in Philadelphia, A’s first baseman Matt Olson began wearing a mask at his position. Olson could be seen chatting with Mike Trout — also masked up — in the top of the eighth after the Angels star drew a walk from Jake Diekman.
A’s manager Bob Melvin said it was important for his players to be even more diligent with safety protocols.
“I think today, I don’t want to say it scared everybody, but maybe a little. This is kind of the thing you were hoping wasn’t going to happen,” Melvin said.
Bassitt (1-0) worked out of a bases-loaded predicament in the fourth when he threw out Tommy La Stella at the plate to start an inning-ending double play. Bassitt, a 10-game winner last season who is in the rotation for now, pumped his fist as he walked off the field.
Ramon Laureano gave Oakland the lead on a sacrifice fly in the third before Matt Chapman’s RBI double.
Yusmeiro Petit struck out David Fletcher in an 11-pitch at-bat to end the seventh. Joakim Soria allowed a pair of singles before closing it out for his first save, retiring Trout on a 93-mph called third strike that the slugger argued.