CHEERS ABOUND, BASEBALL’S BACK
With high hopes and fresh faces, Athletics and Giants swing into season with victories
OAKLAND » 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 and made his first career opening day a memorable one.
Powell set the table for some A’s late-inningmagic by tripling off Noe Ramirez with one out in the 11th and scored the eventual winning run on a walkoff single by Marcus Semien for a 6-5 victory over the Angels on Thursday in front of 27,764 fans at the Oakland Coliseum. The win was just Oakland’s third on opening day in the past 14 years.
Off the crack of the bat, Powell’s drive to left field appeared likely to end up as a double at most. But once hemade his way towards second base and saw the ball hit offJustinUpton’s glove, the speedy Powell hit another gear and raced his way to third base, clapping his hands and giving a fist pump as he slid in safely for the first triple of his career.
“It’s the type of player I am. I showmy emotions on the field,” Powell said. “Sometimes it’s a good thing, and sometimes it’s bad. But it happens.”
Powell, 25, was acquired from the Mariners in a trade for Yonder Alonso last season and played well in the second half, but his selection to the roster came down the final day of spring. The club decided to send outfielder Dustin Fowler to TripleA Nashville in order to get him more comfortable at the plate coming off a devastating knee injury.
“That’s the type of team we are. ‘ Moneyball,’ right?” Powell said. “We just try to grind out every
day. Every game is a playoff game. We’re not a powerhouse like the rest of the teams out there. Any win we can get, we’ll take it any way we can.”
After recording 11 walkoff victories last season, the A’s wasted no time getting their first of 2018 out of the way.
Even with the low turnout, which ended up being the lowest attended opening day at the Coliseum since 1980, the fans who did show up were loud. From the tailgaters in the parking lot to the fans out in the bleachers with their drums and unique chants, A’s manager Bob Melvin said the fans definitely provided an extra jolt of energy.
“That’s always the case here. It always sounds double the fans we have in the ballpark,” Melvin said. “It was great to see the fans that were here and they were really loud. One of the reasons we do these walkoffs so often I think has to do with the crowd. They’re into it and they get louder as the game goes on, certainly in extra innings.”
While the A’s don’t have a ton of resources from a financial standpoint, that doesn’t mean their offense is suffering because of it.
Their lineup is full of power hitters that could vault their offense into the top 10 of the league in runs scored this season. Khris Davis, who is second only to Giancarlo Stanton in home runs hit over the past two seasons, and Matt Olson, crusher of 24 homers in just 189 at-bats last year, lead the high-powered group.
With just two swings of the bat, the pair erased an early four-run deficit in the fifth inning.
Davis, who hit just .127 in the Cactus League, flipped the switch by clubbing a three-run shot over the wall in left- center off Garrett Richards to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Matt Olson, who was celebrating his 24th birthday, followed up Davis’ blast 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.
Olson’s home run was his lone hit of the day, while Davis ended up 2 for 5 with four RBIs, including a clutch single that tied the game 5-5 in the seventh.
“Power always plays,” Melvin said. “We’re down big, and next thing you know in two at-bats, it’s a tie game. We have the ability to do that, and it’s nice knowing that.”
Olson was a key piece of the A’s squad that finished strong in 2017 by going 17-7 in its final 24 games and 1612 in the month of Septem- ber for the most wins in a month since 2014, which is also the last year the A’s made the playoffs.
It’s only one game, but Olson said picking up the win allows the club to carry over the confidence established by the young A’s at the end of last season as they look to sneak up and make a run at a playoff spot in a tough American League West.
“I think it’s just feeding off themomentumwe had,” Olson said. “We felt good in here and always felt likewe were in games. You saw it here today. We came back and ended up winning because of it.”
Melvin was looking for Kendall 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.
Despite the tough outing, Melvin isn’t concerned with his top starter going forward.
“He had a couple of bad pitches but it looked like he had good stuff,” Melvin said. “Maybe a little onesided. He missed a couple of tough pitches. He’ll have better outings than this one.”
• Shohei Ohtani, a twoway star in the Japanese League and also known as the “Japanese Babe Ruth,” batted eighth as the designated hitter. He went 1 for 5, impressing Melvin with his speed.
“He looks to be a terrific player. I didn’t realize he ran that well,” Melvin said. “I know he was injured last year. You look at the stolen base numbers, and I think he had one attempt last year. But he gets down the line, and he’s got a nice swing. I haven’t seen him pitch yet, but on the offensive end, it’s pretty impressive. He looks to be quite the pain in my side.”
Ohtani is scheduled to make his pitching debut Sunday against the A’s as the Angels starting pitcher.
• After blowing 25 saves last season, second-most in the majors, the A’s went out looking to add reinforcements to their bullpen this offseason. It paid off as Ryan Buchter, Yusmeiro Petit, Blake Treinen and Chris Hatcher combined for six shutout innings. Petit and Hatcher pitched two innings each, something Melvin expects a lot of his relievers to do this season.
“We do have some guys we feel we can go one-plus with,” Melvin said. “We might not have the traditional long guy, but we have more two-inning guys than we’ve had in the past.”