No one goes undefeated in baseball. All you can do is try to win as many games as you can before your first loss. For the Oakland Athletics, that mission ended fairly quickly on Saturday.
Despite the hype around starter Shintaro Fujinami, the Angels made his first regular-season debut as miserable as they could. After two shutout innings, Los Angeles erupted for 11 total runs in the third inning alone. Fujinami was pulled after allowing 8 earned runs in just 2 1/3 innings. The bullpen wasn’t much better, allowing five runs themselves in a 13-1 rout favoring the Angels.
There Were Some Positives For Oakland
Yup, there were actually a few things to be proud of from the A’s point of view. We saw what Fujinami could be capable of when he’s feeling it. Striking out both Taylor Ward and Mike Trout was amazing to see while forcing Shohei Ohtani to ground out ended what was a great first inning of work.
Fuji Filth ? pic.twitter.com/6UzYwG6ifo
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) April 1, 2023
His second inning was also impressive, recording two more strikeouts and a flyout. Then, the control issues came and everything went downhill.
Offensively, it was nice to see Ramón Laureano flash his power.
Fuji Filth ? pic.twitter.com/6UzYwG6ifo
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) April 1, 2023
Other than that, it wasn’t the most entertaining game for the Athletics. One run on five hits is unacceptable. Add in two errors, and this was a game to forget for Oakland.
Players of the Game
- Taylor Ward: The right fielder feasted against Oakland pitching, accumulating three hits while driving in four runs.
Taylor Ward caps off an 11-run inning for the @Angels!
— MLB (@MLB) April 1, 2023
(MLB x @loanDepot) pic.twitter.com/zm0KCpbgTF
- Shohei Ohtani: Let’s give him the MVP already. The superstar drove in two runs of his own and also had two hits. Pair that with his Opening Day pitching performance, and he looks like the frontrunner for the award once again.
- Gio Urshela: The former Yankee is making a difference for Los Angeles. He had two RBIs on three hits while scoring two runs of his own.
Next Up
Now at 1-1, the Athletics send Ken Waldichuk for the three-game series finale against the Angels. Los Angeles will combat that by sending Tyler Anderson to the mound.
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