A’s fall to Giants 9-5

Not a lot of good today

In their first game back at the Coliseum since last year, the Oakland A’s lost to the San Francisco Giants by a score of 9-5.

Left-hander Ken Waldichuk got the start for the A’s in his last tune up before the season and he was shaky right out of the gate. He put two on in the first yet escaped unscored upon, but he wasn’t so lucky in the second frame. A single and a walk brought up Giants second baseman David Villar with two runners on and he smashed a no-doubter home run into the left field stairs, quickly putting the A’s behind.

It didn’t take long for Oakland to answer back, though. The bottom half of the frame saw a couple walks and an error load the bases for second baseman Tony Kemp, and he delivered:

Waldichuk then gave the A’s a shutdown inning but allowed more damage in the fourth after a bloop single brought in a pair of runs for the Giants. That ended his day, as Mark Kotsay went to the bullpen and brought in Chad Smith to relieve Waldichuk.

• Ken Waldichuk: 3 ⅓ IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 80 pitches

Not the best final start before the season begins but on the plus side he did get his pitch count up high. He shouldn’t have any restrictions heading into next week.

Smith finished the fourth for Oakland and Adam Oller came on in the fifth. He allowed a pair of runs in his 1 ⅓ innings of work but the important thing here is that Oller made it into the game at all. He missed his scheduled appearance yesterday due to vertigo, but it looks like he’s overcome that.

Lefty reliever Sam Moll followed Oller and had a scoreless outing, and the newly-signed Jeurys Familia made his first appearance with the A’s this spring. He allowed an unearned run in his lone inning of work, but also got a couple K’s and looked solid. Righty Dany Jimenez worked an inning and allowed a solo home run to Joc Pederson, and Drew Steckenrider pitched a clean ninth inning.

On the other side of the ball, the Oakland bats went quiet after the Kemp hit, with only a Ramon Laureano single between the 3rd and 6th innings. They finally put two runners in scoring position in the 7th after a HBP and walk but couldn’t do anything with it, then a Conner Capel walk and Kevin Smith single in the 8th went to waste too. Pablo Reyes and Carlos Perez hit back-to-back home runs with two outs in the ninth, but it was just far too little too late. Overall not a great day from the offense, but hey, ended on a high note.

So not how the team wanted to return to the Coliseum but it’s still just a tuneup game for the regular season. The A’s will travel across the Bay tomorrow to finish off spring training with a finale against the Giants at Oracle Park. It’ll be James Kaprielian taking the ball for Oakland and he’ll be opposed by Ross Stripling. Opening Day is almost here!