Oakland Athletics’ Ryan Noda, right, sits in the dugout after the team’s 6-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri Jun 16, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Troy Ewers

OAKLAND– In front of a crowd of 16,084 in the Coliseum, the Philadelphia Phillies (36-34) take on the Oakland A’s (19-53). On the hill was Taijuan Walker for Philly and JP Sears for Oakland. The game started with a first pitch Kyle Schwarber home run and that was a sneak peak of the next three innings.

The second inning became 2-0 after JT Realmuto hit a solo home run on a fill count and in the fourth inning Alec Bohm hit a two run homer that brought in Bryce Harper. It was 4-1 at this point (Shea Langeliers scored after a Esteury Ruiz double for the A’s).

After the fourth inning it was the pitching battle that was advertised in the beginning. Walker pitched eight innings for the Phillies and struck out eight guys only allowing one run, whereas Sears did seven innings and allowed four runs, all were from home runs.

The bright spot for the A’s was Ruiz getting two steals and Chad Smith coming in and doing his best to stop the bleeding. The bleeding didn’t stop for Oakland, because Philly was able to grab two more runs off an error and a hit and this essentially knocked the A’s farther out the game.

This three game series is just getting started, so hopefully the A’s can recover from this 6-1 beating. Next game is tomorrow at 1:07 pm and on the mound for Oakland is James Kaprielian (2-6, 6.89). It hasn’t been announced who’s pitching for Philly.