The A’s at least won one of these two night games they just had. They came out on top tonight against the Chicago Cubs by a 6-2 final, taking the win and putting their meaningless spring record at 13-15. Lots of good signs from tonight, and we can still finish spring with a .500 record!
It was Luis Severino on the bump tonight for the Athletics as he made his final exhibition start before his Opening Day assignment next week. Looking to put in his work and look sharp doing it, Sevy collected a quick
punchout in the first but also missed with a fastball down the middle to Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya that the backstop deposited over the left field fence for a home run. Quick 1-0 lead for the Cubbies.
Things went quiet for the next few innings as both teams traded zeros. Cubs starter Jameson Taillon looked strong over the first four innings tonight, allowing just a few singles while punching out six A’s through the first four innings.
With Taillon on a roll, Max Muncy strode to the plate to lead off the top of the fourth and connected on a 1-0 fastball high and hit it over the wall in left field to tie this game at 1-1:
Muncy came into camp fighting for the starting third base job. That’s a foregone conclusion. Is the former first-round draft pick now primed for the breakout we all had hoped came last year?
That was only just the beginning. Newcomer Andy Ibanez worked a walk against Taillon, which brought up Lawrence Butler for his third at-bat of the game. And what did our right fielder do? Oh, just connect on an opposite-field two-run home run to give the A’s their first lead of the night:
That was Butler’s first home run of his short spring and it gives a bit of hope that all those reps in the batting cages and against minor league pitching wasn’t for not. If Butler and his knee are healthy then he’s a key contributor to this team. If not, we have a giant hole in right field.
That Butler blast also chased Taillon from the game, ending his night before five full innings. And yet the A’s still weren’t done. After a quick groundout Shea Langeliers stepped into the batter’s box and swatted his own home run, a solo blast to up the lead to 4-1:
Not that it means anything, but that was ‘Bangeliers’ seventh home run this spring, putting him into a tie for the league lead with Reds second baseman Matt McClain. There’s no way there was more untapped power in his bat… is there?
Now staked to a three-run lead, Severino was out from this game after going five full innings and reaching 79 pitches while only really making that one mistake to Amaya. Severino has done well in his previous Opening Day assignment and the money is on him shutting down the Blue Jays’ lineup next Friday night.
Speaking of Amaya, righty Nick Anderson relieved Severino to begin the sixth and for the second time tonight, Amaya delivered a solo home run, preventing a shutdown inning and cutting into the new lead the A’s had just built up.
The A’s had an immediate and golden opportunity to get that run back and then some in the bottom half of the frame when they loaded the bases with no outs. A forceout, strikeout, and groundout killed that rally right there however. Hopefully that wasted opportunity wouldn’t come back to bite us.
Righties Mark Leiter Jr. and Michael Kelly each did their jobs with scoreless innings apiece in the seventh and eighth, respectively, bridging the gap to the ninth.
But before that, the A’s wanted some insurance. A pair of singles from some late-game replacement prospects gave Ibanez a chance to do some damage for his new squad. He came through in the eighth with an RBI single to plate the Athletics’ fifth run of the evening. The A’s got a bit lucky on their next run as Colby Thomas hit a pop up to the left fielder than he dropped, resulting in another run for the Green & Gold.
Now with a four-run lead, why not let Kelly finish things off? Kotsay decided to let the right-hander end the game. He collected a couple strikeouts to start the frame before running into a bit of trouble but he managed to finish the game off without allowing a run. A win for the good guys!
We got a bit of it all tonight. A quality outing from our starting pitcher, who is now primed for a big outing on Opening Day. The powerful lineup showed up tonight with three home runs from three separate players. The bullpen mostly did it’s job outside of one pitch. Butler made an appearance in right field and seemed like he made it out feeling fine (though let’s check in tomorrow). Add in the fact we got a win and it was a successful night for the A’s at the ballpark.
We do it all again tomorrow in what’ll be the team’s third-to-last game of camp. We’ll shift back to daytime contests the rest of the way. The A’s head to the Dodgers’ facility to take on the defending champions. It hasn’t been officially announced but it’s expected that it’ll be left-hander Jeffrey Springs for the A’s. The Dodgers meanwhile have no qualms letting people know that it’s Emmitt Sheehan on the bump for them tomorrow afternoon. A glorious chance to get a win against these guys is always a plus.
The regular season is now officially less than a week away. Who else is ready for these games to start counting?
