OAKLAND — There were youth baseball and softball players from 25 organizations throughout Northern California that went home from the Coliseum with a story to tell Sunday.
They probably already knew the names of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. As for Ken Waldichuk, he’ll be lost in the tale of the time they watched two of the biggest stars in Major League Baseball flex their muscles on consecutive pitches in the fifth inning during a 6-0 loss by the Athletics against the Los Angeles Angels before a crowd of 14,638.
Trout and Ohtani hit tape-measure blasts in the fifth inning as the Angels took two of three from the A’s on the opening series of the season. With Taylor Ward aboard with a single, Trout hammered a 1-1 pitch from Waldichuk off the camera bank in dead center field, a distance measured at 434 feet and with an exit velocity of 111.9 miles per hour.
On the very next pitch, Ohtani crushed one 447 feet to right center at a speed of 110.8, a tad farther than Trout’s homer. It was the first home runs of the season for the two men permanently linked not only as teammates but combatants for the final out of this year’s World Baseball Classic.
Ohtani (1). 447 feet pic.twitter.com/bI6jaCYEap
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) April 2, 2023
It was Ohtani who struck out Trout for the final out of Japan’s 3-2 win in the WBC over the United States on March 22 in Miami.
Rookie catcher Logan O’Hoppe also homered for the Angels, a three-run shot to left center with two out in the fourth off Waldichuk.
The A’s finished with just five hits, struck out nine times and had little to hang their hat on other than a pure-hustle double by Ramon Laureano in the fifth inning.
The A’s won 2-1 on Opening Night, followed by a 13-1 loss Saturday and then the series-ending shutout. They are hitting .178 (16-for-90) and have scored in just three of 27 innings to open the season.
A’s manager Mark Kotsay did something he almost never does in using the same position player lineup in back-to-back games while facing their second-left hander in two days.
Tyler Anderson (1-0) worked the first six innings before giving way to Andrew Wantz for two innings and Carlos Estevez to finish up the shutout.
“Offense is momentum and we haven’t been able to put it together and string hits together,” Kotsay said. “We haven’t had a big inning yet this year.”
If there is such a thing as a “wow” index for an impressive homer, it exists only in the minds of those on the outside.
“Two home runs is two home runs,” Kotsay said. “It doesn’t matter how far they go or if they just creep over the wall. It’s a momentum change in the game by any measure and we weren’t able to bounce back from it.”
True enough, O’Hoppe’s three-run shot barely made it over the 362 foot sign in left center and broke open a scoreless game in the fourth against Waldichuk, who pitched three scoreless innings after a rough spring.
The inning began with a swinging bunt to the right side by Hunter Renfroe. Catcher Shea Langeliers attempted to field the ball and throw from his knees, but the ball hit Renfroe in the back of his helmet, enabling him to reach second.
Waldichuk retired Brandon Drury, but walked Luis Rengifo and struck out Gio Urshela. He was nearly out of the jam, except O’Hoppe hit a 1-1 pitch to left center for his first major league home run and a 3-0 lead.
The fifth inning was the final gut punch. Ward’s single was followed by Trout’s two-run shot, and on the very next pitch, Ohtani delivered his blast.
“I wouldn’t say they were center-cut, but they were definitely mistakes,” Waldichuk said. “I don’t know if either was exactly in the zone, but definitely not where I intended to put them.”
Aledmys Diaz, the veteran infielder signed in the offseason, didn’t see the Trout-Ohtani blasts as being more demoralizing than any other home runs.
“I mean, they’ve been doing it for six years,” Diaz said. “That’s nothing new. They’ve got a great team and it’s going to be tough for every team to face those two guys and the rest of the lineup.”
At game’s end, while the Athletics were commiserating in a quiet clubhouse, fans were invited on the field to run the bases — a procession of hundreds stepping on home plate one after the other. It was something that happened only three times for the A’s in their first three games.
“We’ll need to make adjustments as a team,” Diaz said. “We’ve got to be more patient and have a better plan. It’s a long season. The most important thing is to stay positive and keep working.”
NOTABLE
— Adrian Martinez, the A’s third pitcher of the day, achieved a moral victory of sorts by retiring Trout in the ninth on a fly to deep center. Trout had doubled homered and walked.
Martinez gave up one hit in three shutout innings. He threw 40 pitches, 25 for strikes.
“He pounded the zone, had ground balls, had some swing and miss,” Kotsay said. “I was impressed with the outing from Adrian for sure.”
— The Athletics open a three-game series Monday at 6:40 p.m. against the Cleveland Guardians with James Kaprielian (5-9, 4.23 ERA in 2022) facing Zach Plesac (3-12, 4.31). JP Sears (6-3, 3.86) takes on Shane Bieber (0-0, 0.00) in 2023) Tuesday night and Kyle Muller (0-0, 1.80) makes his second start against Hunter Gaddis (0-0, 9.82) on Wednesday afternoon.
Source: www.mercurynews.com