I’d hate to think that we can’t perform with expectations, but this team’s always been in past years a team that has not really at the beginning been expected to do much. “Another guy’s sick today, same thing”.
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What had been planned as a marquee matchup between two American League aces never happened.
Bassitt will go to the mound after Sonny Gray and Rich Hill to start the campaign. He set a franchise record with 274 strikeouts last season and the team puts a lot of hope for a successful season on his shoulders.
After Jackson’s RBI in the sixth, Rollins hit into a bases-loaded double play to end the inning, but he made up for it with the ninth-inning shot off A’s reliever Sean Doolittle.
David Robertson mowed down the top of the Oakland order in the bottom of the ninth for his second save in as many nights. And Ventura said it wasn’t necessarily a decision about how his ace was pitching, but rather a consideration of preserving Sale’s health for the long haul after he’d been slowed during spring training by a fractured right foot. Jed Lowrie then changed the complexion of the game with a two-run single to cut the Sox’s lead in half. The closer got two quick outs, but on a 2-2 pitch, Rollins hammered his first homer of the season, a backbreaker for the A’s.
As Todd Frazier ran down the first-base line Tuesday night at the Oakland Coliseum, he looked toward the White Sox dugout and directed a leaping fist pump toward his new teammates.
The Sox have made headlines this offseason for some interesting reasons as first basemen Adam LaRoche abruptly retired after the team asked him to limit the amount of time his son spent in the team clubhouse. After a Josh Reddick single moved Lowrie to second, Lowrie scored on a single to center by Danny Valencia.
RHP Sonny Gray will start on Wednesday night against the White Sox after being scratched Monday with what was initially thought to be food poisoning but might have been the flu.
The A’s, who were 19-35 in one-run games a year ago, suffered their second straight such loss to open the season.
Bassitt (1-8) struck out 64 and walked 30 with a 3.56 ERA in 86 innings over 18 games, including 13 starts last season. Quintana didn’t pitch his best, but he limited the A’s to just two runs on seven hits (no walks) over 5⅔ innings. He became the fourth-oldest pitcher to start an opener for the A’s behind Tom Candiotti in 1998, Dave Stewart in 1995 and Bob Welch in 1993. “We learned that past year, we’ve learned it this spring”.
So far, the season is off to a rough start for the Oakland Athletics.
Henderson died in late December at age 57, and Phillips passed away in February at 56.
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That was the final batter for Hill, who threw 36 pitches in the inning. Garcia will play some right field to spell Eaton, too. “We’re going to do the best we can”.
