OAKLAND — For two innings, the debut of Athletics right-hander Shintaro Fujinami seemed too good to be true.
Which was exactly the case.
The Los Angeles Angels chased Fujnami with an 11-run third inning in a 13-1 win over the Athletics Saturday at the Coliseum before a crowd of 15,757.
Including two inherited runners that scored on long reliever Adam Oller, Fujinami finished giving up eight earned runs in 2 1/3 innings, with an ERA that will sit at 30.86 until his second start next Saturday.
“Could have been better, obviously, but I was glad to get on a big league mound,” Fujinami said through translator Issei Kamada. “But getting on a big league mound is not good enough and next time I’ll try to do better.”
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay chose do dwell on the first six outs rather than nine hitters than reached base in the third before he came out to take the ball from his 28-year-old Japanese import.
“The first two innings I thought Fuji was great,” Kotsay said. “He dominated hitters with his fastball and his split. In the third, he walked (Luis) Renigfo on a 3-2 slider, and it seemed to spiral on him there.”
Given the season is two games old, teammates were eager to see more of Fujinami as he begins the season as the A’s Saturday starter.
“I mean, he was doing whatever he wanted out there,” shortstop Nick Allen said. “His splitter was really working. He was doing everything he needs to do. He does that and he’s going to be just fine.”
Catcher Shea Langeliers was philosophical and optimistic.
“Obviously today didn’t go how we wanted it to go, but I think the start of it showed what it could be, and it’s exciting,” Langeliers said. “Everybody knows he’s got really good stuff and he’s a really good pitcher. Sometimes baseball just gets the best of you. Today was one of those days.”
The contrast between the first two innings and the third was striking. Fujinami retired the first six hitters in order, striking out four. He threw only 23 pitches, 17 of them strikes. In the third, only half of his 32 pitches were strikes with five hits and three walks.
There seemed to be some regret that Fujinami, who has an assortment of pitches, didn’t simply stick with what was working.
“The first two innings, the fastball was working very well,” Fujinami said. “I thought in the third inning I threw too much off-speed and should have thrown more fastballs.”
The aforementioned walk to Rengifo started things, with Gio Urshula grounding a single up the middle. Logan O’Hoppe doubled over the head of Seth Brown in left to drive in the first run, Taylor Ward singled in another, with Shohei Ohtani hitting an opposite field liner off the fence in left to drive a third run before Anthony Rendon hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
A walk to Hunter Renfroe and a two-run single by Jake Lamb put the Angels up 6-0, with A’s manager Mark Kotsay giving Fujinami the hook in favor of Oller.
Things weren’t much better initially for Oller, who walked Rengifo, gave up a two-run single to Urshela on a would-be double-play ground ball and a sacrifice fly to O’Hoppe for 9-0 lead. The final indignity inflicted upon the A’s that inning was Ward’s two-run home run before Trout was mercifully retired on a ground ball to end the inning.
🚨 NEW HAT ALERT 🚨 pic.twitter.com/w1fjtytSgt
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) April 1, 2023
The end result was inevitable at that point, and all the Athletics were able to muster was a solo home run from Ramon Laureano in the fifth inning for their first homer of the season.
Patrick Sandoval (1-0) worked the first five innings for the Angels, then gave way to Tucker Davidson, who earned a save despite the huge margin because he pitched the final four innings.
Oller, who turned in 4 2/3 innings of long relief to spare the bullpen, pointed to his own debut with the A’s last season when he gave up five earned runs in 1 1/3 innings. Reliever Trevor May, whose locker was to the right of Oller’s, chimed in with his own nightmarish debut — seven walks in 2014 when pitching for the Minnesota Twins against the A’s.
“It happened right here,” May said. “I’ve never walked seven batters since.”
NOTABLE
— Seth Brown was in the lineup against a left-handed pitcher rather than sitting out in a platoon, something the A’s plan on doing for a time to see if he can be a fulltime player. Brown was 0-for-4 against Sandoval and Davidson, both lefties.
— Catcher Carlos Perez, who entered the game late, singled in the ninth inning — his first major league hit in five seasons.
— Despite the 11-run third inning, the game was completed in 2 hours, 24 minutes. Both Fujinami and Sandoval had pitch clock violations for balls that did not impact the game.
