A’s start with walkoff win over Angels

OAKLAND — After recording 11 walk-off victories last season, the Oakland A’s wasted no time getting their first of 2018 out of the way.

Boog Powell wasn’t even sure if he was going to make the A’s 25-man roster just a week ago. Not only did he make it, he came up big to spark some more late-inning heroics at the Coliseum.

Powell set things up for the A’s walk-off victory by tripling off Noe Ramirez to set the stage for an eventual walk-off single by Marcus Semien for a 6-5 Opening Day victory over the Los Angeles Angels in 11 innings in front of 27,764 fans.

After Kendall Graveman dug the A’s into an early 4-0 deficit, the A’s high-powered offense showed why it’s expected to finish this season as one of baseball’s top-10 offenses.

A’s manager Bob Melvin remained worry-free about Khris Davis all throughout spring training despite his struggles at the plate. Now we know why.

Davis hit just .127 in the Cactus Leauge, but the slugger flipped a switch to pick up right where he left off after hitting a career-high 43 home runs last season by clubbing a three-run shot over the wall in left-center off Garrett Richards in the fifth to cut the deficit to 4-3.

Matt Olson, who was also celebrating his 24th birthday,

followed up Davis’ bomb with a home run of his own over the right-field wall to make it back-to-back home runs and tie the score at 4-4.

The Angels quickly went back on top with a home run by Albert Pujols to lead off the sixth, but Davis added on to his big day in the seventh with an RBI single to tie it up once again.

Melvin was looking for Graveman to kick off the season with a good first impression as leader of a young starting rotation. But the Angels powerful lineup got the best of Graveman as he allowed five runs, three of those from solo home runs, on seven hits in five innings of work.