OAKLAND – One of the smallest Opening Day crowds in the Oakland A’s 57-year history showed Thursday night for possibly their final season debut at the Coliseum — an 8-0 shutout loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
While some fans bunkered in the parking lot to protest the A’s planned relocation to Las Vegas, there wasn’t much for the home fans to cheer amid the announced crowd of 13,522.
“I would have liked to seen all those guys inside the stadium tonight. But they’re fighting for something they believe in,” A’s starting pitcher Alex Wood said. “As long as they’re supporting us, whether it’s inside the stadium or watching the game outside, Oakland has such a rich history of baseball and you see how much it means to people.”
That was officially the seventh-smallest attendance in the A’s Opening Day history, although that includes debuts limited by the COVID pandemic in 2020 (no fans) and 2021 (10,436). Ironically, the A’s record for lowest attendance of a season opener came in 1996 when 7,294 showed in Las Vegas, where that series against Toronto got moved because of the Coliseum’s “Mt. Davis” construction for the Raiders.
Seven of the A’s first nine batters struck out, and Guardians’ starter Shane Bieber totaled 11 strikeouts while shutting out the A’s on four hits through six innings.
“We didn’t have an answer for Bieber tonight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “That was pretty good. We were swinging at the right pitches. Outside of JJ (Bleday, 2-for-4), he pretty much dominated tonight up and down the lineup. He has that ability and there’s a reason he won the Cy Young in ’20.”
Bieber’s exit allowed for some hope during the seventh-inning stretch, at which point the crowd also came alive trying to catch baseballs being thrown down to them by the A’s new television-broadcast crew of Dallas Braden and Jenny Cavnar.
Wood, formerly of the cross-bay Giants, threw a 1-2-3 first inning. A five-run rally in the fourth inning ended his debut, however, and the crowd was large enough to serenade Wood with boos after a two-run double by No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio, for a 6-0 deficit.
“It was one of those games you leave and feel your stuff was good and should have had a better result,” Wood said. “… It was super cool and it’s a big honor to take the ball on Opening Day. You wish you could win at home on Opening Day. But baseball’s back and I’m excited for the year.”
It was the A’s first Opening Day shutout loss since 2014, when Cleveland won 2-0 here. And this one made for a victorious debut for Guardians’ manager Stephen Vogt, who ended his playing career here two years ago with a home run for the A’s in his final at-bat.
“It was really a special night overall to be back in Oakland, to see people I care about and love and have been such a big part of my history,” said Vogt, who had about 30 friends and family in attendance from his native Visalia. “And then for our guys to come out and play the way they did, it was just a real special night.”
Chants of “Sell-The-Team” faintly followed in the fifth inning, just over an hour into the season. The occasional “Let’s-Go-A’s” chant proved just as futile. Some of those fans presumably ditched the outside gathering to fill pockets of seats around the Coliseum’s first and second decks.
“It was pretty awesome for what we were told was going on, to still see the Oakland faithful come out and support us inside the stadium,” first baseman Ryan Noda said, who further complemented the outfield fans who are “always going to show up and we love that from them.”
“Good for them. Good for them,” Noda added of those who left the boycott. “We just want the fans in the stadium cheering for us, pushing one way with us. That’s all we care about. Anything else is out of our control.”
The A’s anemic offense nearly broke through against Bieber in the middle innings, only to be denied. In the fifth, Lawrence Butler got tagged out at third when he slid past the bag on Nick Allen’s two-out single. In the sixth, Bleday reached on a two-out double, then designated hitter Brent Rooker flew out short of the centerfield warning track.
Back-to-back, second-inning doubles by David Fry and Tyler Freeman put the A’s in a 1-0 hole. The A’s sought to answer as J.D. Davis reached on a one-out, opposite-field single in the ex-Giants’ cross-bay debut; Bieber struck out the next two batters he faced, giving him six Ks through two frames.
No home runs were hit, but a ninth-inning, RBI triple by José Ramírez hit the right-field wall for a 7-0 deficit.
The night wasn’t without defensive highlights: Right fielder Seth Brown made a diving catch in the ninth for the Guardians’ final out; first baseman Ryan Noda made a sliding catch on Steven Kwan’s infield popup of Wood’s first pitch, and, second baseman Zack Gelof repeatedly flashed grace by cutting off a couple of grounders up the middle.
The A’s first hit of the season: Bleday’s opposite-field, broken-bat single in the first, but Rooker followed with a strikeout, the same fate that Noda and Gelof endured in the A’s opening at-bats.
The shutout was the fourth time in Oakland history the A’s were blanked at home to start the season.
NOTE: Losing 8-0 tied a team record for the most lopsided shutout defeat in Oakland history, matching the mark from 53 years ago when Vida Blue was shelled by the Washington Senators in an 8-0 loss, giving up four runs in 1 2/3 innings. It’s difficult to envision the A’s or their starting pitcher Thursday bouncing back like the team did in 1971. Not only did Oakland go on to win the American League West for the first time in its history, Blue turned in what remains one of the most dominant years in baseball history. Blue, who died at 73 on May 6, won both the AL Most Valuable Player Award and Cy Young Award in 1971 while going 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA. Blue had 301 strikeouts, 24 complete games and eight shutouts that year.
