A’s observations: Sergio Romo wins matchup of ex-Giants with Madison Bumgarner.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Sergio Romo took a moment before facing his second batter Tuesday. The batter was Madison Bumgarner.
Romo and Bumgarner, of course, were teammates for three World Series titles with the Giants. As Bumgarner, now pitching for the Diamondbacks, came up to hit in the fourth inning of Tuesday’s exhibition at Salt River Fields, Romo, the new A’s reliever, stood near the mound, shaking his head and grinning. He wasn’t alone.
“I’ve never seen Bumgarner smile before on a baseball field — that’s the first time ever,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. “And he had a smile on his face basically the entire atbat.” Almost, anyway. Ahead 12 after throwing three sliders, Romo fired a fastball that plate umpire Adrian Johnson called strike three. Bumgarner appeared to have a brief word with Johnson as he turned to walk back to the Diamondbacks’ dugout.
Said Bumgarner, according to the Arizona Republic: “We’re competing out there. It was against a good friend of mine and longtime teammate. It was fun.”
Romo struck out two batters in the fourth, working a clean inning for the first time in three spring appearances.
A’s starter Jesús Luzardo retired seven of eight hitters before facing Bumgarner in the third inning and walking him. Luzardo did not retire another batter, allowing five runs before exiting at 55 pitches. Asdrubal Cabrera and Eduardo Escobar hit tworun doubles against Luzardo, and Josh Rojas added an RBI single. The A’s lost 123.
“I kind of got a flash of last year, just things started running away in one inning,” said Luzardo, who threw four scoreless innings in his first spring start. “I’m glad it happened in spring training, so I need to get in front of it. But that’s something that can’t happen during the year, those long innings that kind of get away from you. You have to be able to stop the bleeding.”
Luzardo said his “stuff was there, just command” was not. He hit 97 mph with his fastball and threw a looping “turkey sub” curveball to Trayce Thompson, brother of the Warriors’ Klay. Luzardo followed the 60 mph curveball, a called strike, with a 96 mph fastball.
“He was throwing hard enough, looked like he had a good changeup at times,” Melvin said. “Just had a tough inning where they put some good swings on him when the ball was in the middle of the plate.”
Ramón Laureano was scratched from the lineup with a sore left side, the A’s said. Melvin did not have more details after the game but said Laureano felt it “just taking a swing in the cage.”
“I know we’re trying to be proactive and make sure this doesn’t go on too long,” Melvin said. “Probably have more tomorrow when the doctors have seen him.”
Second baseman Jed Lowrie homered against Bumgarner for his first hit of this spring. Lowrie was hitless in limited majorleague games the past two seasons with the Mets and had no spring training stats those years, so the homer apparently was his first hit in a majorleague uniform since 2018 — with Oakland.
“It’s his first hit, but all his swings look balanced, both left and righthanded,” Melvin said.
Catcher Tyler Soderstrom, a lategame replacement, lined a double to rightcenter that left his bat at 109.6 mph, per Baseball Savant. The 2020 firstround pick is 4for7 this spring.
Sean Murphy is scheduled to catch in a game for the first time Thursday. Austin Allen, who started behind the plate Tuesday, took a Cabrera backswing to the side of his head early but stayed in the game. Allen said it “just kind of stung me a little bit.”