The Oakland Athletics returned from Tokyo in hopes of continuing their success on the mound and to prepare for a possible run at an unprecedented campaign to baffle the collective baseball world. However, if this was Oakland's goal, they fell pain-stakingly short of that mark on Friday night.
The matchup featured Oakland's reformed sabermetric ace, Brandon McCarthy, versus that of Seattle's second starter, Jason Vargas. After a rapid 2 innings with both pitchers blazing through eachother's lineups, McCarthy, who had 33 pitches, 24 strikes and 3 strikeouts through 2 innings, surrendered a leadoff double to Seattle. The following at bat showcased Figgins completing a sacrifice bunt to Josh Donaldson, who proceeded to error the throw to Weeks at first and allowed the first run of the ballgame to plate. Seattle finished the inning by scoring 4 runs, 3 of them unearned (Oakland led the AL with 82 unearned runs last season).
The bottom of the frame was riddled with controversy. Jemile Weeks seemed to connect on a ground ball to third. He reached on an infield single and advanced to third on a throwing error, but, despite Tom Hallion, the home plate umpire, signaling a fair ball, the first base umpire, Brian O' Nora, declared it to be foul, thus ending any hope of Oakland immediately erasing a portion of their deficit. Oakland went 1-7 with RISP and left 7 runners on base.
McCarthy, fresh off of an eight day rest before his start at the coliseum, was a shell of his usual self. He pitched a mere 5 inning pitched and proceeded to 7 hits, 5 runs (2 earned), and most shockingly of all, 2 walks. McCarthy must recuperate for his next outing against Kansas City on Wednesday.
Oakland's lone highlight came off of the bat of Yoenis Cespedes. With two outs and Jonny Gomes on first, Cespedes demolished a towering shot to left-center that forcefully smacked into the concrete of the luxury boxes. The shot is sure to gain an infamous reputation amongst dwellers of the coliseum and left many agast. Cespedes did strikeout in his final two plate appearances to the contest, but subjected the stateside audience to his unparalleled potential.
Oakland ultimately lost the contest 7-3, but began their campaign in the states and hopes to rebound on Saturday night as Bartolo Colon will combat the notorious Felix Hernandez.
