Oakland expects much bigger crowd against Red Sox
The A’s reopened the Coliseum at full capacity on Tuesday night but still had lots of empty seats for their first game without attendance limits since 2019.
The A’s announced an attendance of 4,739 at their 54 loss to the Rangers. It was a larger crowd than the A’s drew for 18 of their first 42 home games this year under capacity limits but came in under their average of 5,510 for those games.
While Tuesday marked the Coliseum reopening in full, the A’s have designated Friday evening’s series opener against the Red Sox for an “official reopening celebration” with postgame fireworks included. The A’s expect a crowd of more than 30,000 for Friday night’s game.
On Sept. 15, 1997, the A’s reported an attendance of 4,651 for a home game against the Tigers, the last time they announced a smaller number than Tuesday’s for a game at the Coliseum under full capacity, according to attendance records on baseballreference.com. Notably, that figure would have included season tickets sold; the A’s did not sell season tickets this season, so attendance numbers include only singlegame tickets sold.
The A’s have topped 10,000 in attendance at two home games this season, their opener April 1 against the Astros and May 30 against the Angels, a Sunday afternoon. The A’s reached the halfway point of their schedule Tuesday night at 4734 and 1½ games out of first place in the AL West.
Tuesday’s game marked a pivot from the A’s weekend series against the Giants at Oracle Park — the first at the Giants’ ballpark without capacity limits. The threegame weekend series, which included two night games and one day game, drew a total attendance of 106,016.
Injuries: One injured A’s outfielder inched closer to a return Wednesday while Oakland received positive news on another.
Right fielder Stephen Piscotty, recovering from a left wrist sprain, took batting practice on the field before the A’s played the Rangers, his first time doing so since landing on the injured list June 19. Piscotty received a cortisone shot in his wrist last week.
Piscotty said the cortisone shot was the third he has received for the lingering wrist issue — also last September and during spring training. He said he feels ready to resume playing but “that’s ultimately up to the trainers to decide.” Manager Bob Melvin said it’s unclear if Piscotty will require a minorleague rehab assignment.
“Last time I had a cortisone shot like this I kind of got into activity right away, so we’re going a little slower this time around which is probably smart,” Piscotty said. “But I feel ready.”
Piscotty said the cortisone quiets discomfort until the shot wears off. He said the possibility of surgery on the wrist is “something I’ll look at for sure once the season is over — kind of see where I’m at, maybe have another MRI, see how the tendon looks. But after the (last) MRI it didn’t look any worse, so that was good news.”
Outfielder Mark Canha is further from a return. Canha, placed on IL last Friday with a strained left hip, received plateletrich plasma injections in both hips, Melvin said. But Canha does not have structural damage related to his 2016 surgery to repair a torn labrum in the left hip, Melvin said.
Canha is not eligible to return from the IL until Monday at the earliest and Melvin did not offer a timetable for the A’s to regain their primary leadoff hitter.
“It’s all about how he feels,” Melvin said. “What we were most concerned about was the hip that he had surgery on and that looks good and sound.”