FEMALE SKIPPER COACHES WITH D-BACKS

Ronnie Gajownik spent her Saturday afternoon as the bench coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It wasn’t until mid-game she realized that was quite remarkable.

“It was awesome,” Gajownik said later. “I didn’t realize how big of a moment it was until (pitching coach Brent Strom) told me in the fifth inning, he’s like, ‘They’re doing articles all over about you. You’re trending!’ ”

The split-squad Diamondbacks lost to San Diego 5-4.

Gajownik, 29, was hired during the offseason as manager of the D-backs minor league affiliate Hillsboro Hops. She’ll be the first woman to manage a Class High-a team.

Gajownik and D-backs manager Torey Lovullo sat next to each other in chairs just outside the dugout, talking for the better part of three hours.

“I told her we were just going to sit down, talk baseball for nine innings and let’s have some fun with it,” Lovullo said before the game. “I said, ‘You think I’m going to be teaching you things, but you’re going to be teaching me things as well.’ ... I’m just appreciating my time with her. She’s a spectacular teacher and can relate with the players very well.”

Gajownik has been with the organization for a few years and said sitting with Lovullo and asking questions was an invaluable experience.

“It’s cool to take a step back and realize how far women have come,” Gajownik said. “And then also, me personally as a coach, all the work I’ve put in myself and then all the work the Diamondbacks have put into me, my family, my friends, my wife. It’s just cool to see the culmination of everything coming together. It’s a cool moment.”

A’s visit happens in Vegas

The Athletics are calling Las Vegas home ... for this weekend.

The A’s sent a split-squad of players to Las Vegas for two games against Cincinnati as part of “Big League Weekend.” The games are being played at Las Vegas

Ballpark, the home of Oakland’s Triple-a affiliate, the Aviators.

Cincinnati pulled out a wild 10-9 victory in the first game on Saturday before a crowd of 8,805. The two teams meet again today.

The two-day visit to Sin City comes with the continued conversation that Las Vegas could become a permanent home for the A’s in the future if the lengthy, ongoing search for a stadium solution in the Bay Area doesn’t materialize soon.

“It’s no secret that we’ve been pursuing paths in Oakland and Vegas. So maybe there’s more buzz around it because we’re going right now and the process has seemed to be shifted a little bit,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “But regardless of all that, we’ve been there before and it’s our Triple-a home. I think it’s a great thing to take in for fans, a weekend of baseball in Vegas.”

New tricks for ol’ Verlander

Justin Verlander threw both as a National Leaguer and with a pitch clock for the first time Saturday. He said he wished the NL part would have happened earlier. “When guys like me were still hitting,” he joked.

Verlander’s first experience with the timer went reasonably well, as did his pitching in general, as the 40-year-old Mets newcomer made his spring debut.

Coming off his third Cy Young Award, and a World Series title with Houston, he threw only seven balls out of 35 pitches while allowing one run in three innings in a 15-4 win over the Marlins.

Notable

Toronto slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. withdrew from playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic due to inf lammation in his right knee. Toronto manager John Schneider said that an MRI showed no structural damage in Guerrero’s knee a day after he left a Blue Jays’ spring training game.

Red Sox lefty James Paxton has a Grade 1 strain of his right hamstring and seems unlikely to be on the opening-day roster.

Left-handed reliever Will Smith agreed to a $1.5 million, one-year contract with the Rangers.