A’s late rally spoiled by walk-off error in 5-4 loss

The A’s youngest stars shined bright in a tough loss

The A’s entered Friday's matchup against the Kansas City Royals in Surprise, AZ, winners of three of their last four with explosive offense leading the way. Friday wouldn’t be much different with the A’s outhitting the Kansas City 11-7, but two big early home runs from the Royals and a late-inning blunder gifted them the 5-4 walk-off win.

Wood Struggles in Debut

Alex Wood, a left-handed starter and one of the A’s most significant free agent signings of this last offseason, got the start Friday for his A’s debut. The 12-year veteran surrendered a two-run home run to Salvador Perez just three batters into the game while then getting pulled just a batter later for Adrian Martinez.

Mark Kotsay would re-insert Wood for the second and third innings (gotta love Spring Training rules) but the home run ball would bite him again as Bobby Witt Jr. smacked a solo shot in the third to grow the lead to 3-0. Kotsay would remove Wood for good just a few batters later ending his day with three innings of work, four hits, three runs, and two strikeouts.

After Zach Jackson pitched a brisk, scoreless fourth inning, the Royals tacked on another in the fifth on an errant pickoff attempt by Kyle Muller that scored Tyler Gentry from third. With a runner on third and no outs from the error, Muller would buckle down impressively striking out Witt Jr. and getting Perez and MJ Melendez to groundout and popout and keep the deficit at just four.

Offense Starts Slow

Kotsay would play his offensive starters for the first six innings of play, but they couldn’t do much on Friday. After sputtering for just two Brent Rooker singles through the first four innings, poor execution haunted the A’s offense in the fifth and sixth.

The fifth started with runners on first and second and no outs for the A’s, but a weak Nick Allen flyout and Yohel Pozo double play abruptly ended the rally — the A’s third of the game at that point.

In the sixth, it was more of the same. After singles from Esteury Ruiz and Jordan Diaz set up first and second with one out, Rooker would ground out softly to third on a beautiful bare-handed play from Nick Loftin. The next batter, Shea Langaliers, flew out. The A’s starters would muster just five singles and no runs through their six innings of play, cooling off from their torrent last few days.

Prospects Spark Late Rally

After being shut out through seven innings of play, the A’s young guns would get them on the board in the eighth. The inning started with their former top prospect, Tyler Soderstrom, walking thanks to a pitch clock violation. The A’s seventh overall prospect, Max Muncy, would then cash in immediately with a two-run mammoth home run to left center to cut the lead in half, 4-2.

A single and walk immediately put the A’s back in business with no outs, but consecutive strikeouts to Drew Lugbauer, Cooper Bowman, and Jeisson Rosario cut the rally short — a common theme on Friday.

Mason Miller, the teams' second-ranked prospect, pitched the 8th inning in his Spring Training debut, and he didn’t disappoint. Miller struck out the side in order including one off a 102 MPH fastball to leave his mark on the game. Thanks to him, and three strong innings from Muller where he struck out four and retired 9 of 10 batters he faced.

In the ninth, it was some of the A’s brightest young stars leading the way yet again. With a runner on first and one out, Soderstrom sent a booming double off the right field wall to cut the lead to one. A few batters later, now with two outs, Hoy Park clutched up sending an RBI double to center field to knot the game at four.

As it looked like the game could end in a tie, Tyler Ferguson took over for the A’s in the ninth in an outing to quickly forget. He walked the first batter, Ryan Fitzgerald, and got what looked like a Taylor-made double-play comebacker from the next batter, Javier Voz.

Instead, Ferguson threw the ball away into the outfield and Fitzgerald would never stop running as the Royals walked off the A’s unusually.

The loss moves Oakland to 3-4 so far in Spring Training with a matchup against the Seattle Mariners in Peoria, AZ, awaiting them tomorrow at 12:10 PST.