Friday night’s A’s-Giants clash gave fans 1st game experience since pandemic rules were lifted.
Oracle Park crowd sees Bay Area’s first MLB game since restrictions were lifted
SAN FRANCISCO >> The ball carried and carried and carried. Suddenly, we were wet.
Giants catcher Curt Casali’s swing on a seventh-inning fastball barely cleared the wall in left-center field. It padded San Francisco’s lead over Oakland and gave the crowd of 36,928 exactly what they had been craving: a moment of pure, communal exuberance. Friday night was the first time sports fans in the Bay Area have been allowed to come together unencumbered of COVID-19 restrictions since 2019.
Jake Purves, in town from just outside Sacramento and standing above right-center field, turned and raised both his arms to the sky.
We were all a little wet from the mist off the fountains that rained down on the standing-room only fans.
The man needed a high five. He got a few.
It felt good to high-five a stranger again.
“It definitely feels like it’s back to normal,” Purves said. “Just being in the outfield with the crowd packed, I haven’t felt that kind of live, inperson energy since before COVID.”
If you were missing something over the past 16 months,
chances are it could be found at Oracle Park on Friday night.
There were hugs and highfives. There were traditional Opening Day introductions.
The mayors of San Francisco and Oakland were on hand to throw out a rare ceremonial first pitch that lived up its name.
There was even a marriage proposal (she said yes).
Purves and his friend, Stephan Raeth, who plays baseball at the University of Washington after a local highschool career at Acalanes, decided to attend Friday night on a whim. Just the kind of unplanned excursion available once more to Californians in their second week of newfound normalcy.
Before Friday, Giants fans were required to prove they had been inoculated against COVID-19 in order to sit shoulder to shoulder. Attendance was capped at 22% of Oracle Park’s normal capacity of more than 41,000.
There were no such restrictions for anyone in attendance.
Athletics fans, who commuted across the bay in droves, got the first opportunity to make noise. But the home crowd got the last laugh.
Giants starter Johnny Cueto escaped early trouble and delivered seven shutout innings in front of the nearly sold out stadium.
“He’s a showman. He feeds off high-energy situations,” said Casali, the Giants’ catcher. “Fans can really give us energy. It’s truly incredible.
For Johnny, who might’ve been struggling his last two starts, that really gave him an extra level of adrenaline.”
The crowd came alive for the first time as Oakland loaded the bases in the top of the second.
A chant of “Let’s go Oakland” broke through the murmur of the early innings. With two outs and the bases loaded, Matt Olson worked the count to 2-2 against Johnny Cueto. The crowd erupted once, for a foul tip; then it did again when Cueto got Olson swinging on the next pitch to erase the threat.
It was Giants’ fans turn now.
Let’s-Go-Giants. Let’s-GoGiants.
“It was fun to go back and forth,” Purves said. “I missed that last year.”
Finally, on the last batter of the night, manager Gabe Kapler got to soak it in. Friday night was a first for him, too: In a season and a half as San Francisco’s skipper, this was his first time managing in front of a full home crowd.
Down to their final out, the Athletics’ Chad Pinder stepped in as a pinch-hitter and the potential tying run. The crowd rose to its feet. Four pitches later, Pinder swung through a Jake McGee fastball, and Giants fans began to celebrate a win to open the Bay Bridge Series.
“We saw last year (Pinder) can change the game with one swing of the bat. I think our fans recognized that,” Kapler said. “I did take pause there at the very end and saw all the fans on their feet. I think it was special for the players in the dugout and all of us as staff as well.”