Photo courtesy of Oakland A’s Twitter.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

OAKLAND- The A’s opened a home series against the Padres with a rough outing against the Padres by a final of 8-3.

Attendance: 17,828

Before the game Tony Kemp was awarded a nomination for the Roberto Clemente award whose number he wore along with a few other players.

Photo courtesy of Oakland A’s Twitter. Tony Kemp is handed the Roberto Clemente award by manager of the A’s Mark Kotsay on Sept. 15th 2023.

This would also be former A’s manager Bob Melvin’s first visit back to the Coliseum after going to the Padres.

Starting for the Athletics was Sean Newcomb who coming in had a 1-0 record with a 3.21 era. While the Padres had Seth Lugo start who had a 6-7 record with a 3.82 era.

The offense was working early for the Padres as Fernando Tatis Jr. showed his power by crushing a 2-0 pitch to center field. Then after back-to-back walks Newcomb threw a wild pitch getting Juan Soto home.

Quickly down 2-0 Newcomb wasn’t able to establish much more confidence in the second inning as he gave a lead-off double to Garrett Cooper. After a single and a hit by pitch the bases were then loaded for Tatis who singled getting two runs home making it 4-0. Newcomb was able to minimize the damage to just two runs but now the A’s needed some runs.

There would be some help in the bottom of the second as Shea Langeliers launched a solo shot to center field getting his 20th homer of the season.

The fourth saw the first pitching change of the game as Adrián Martínez came in to replace Newcomb.

Martínez would end up having quite the opposite of and outing as he only gave up one earned run in 4.2 innings pitched. It was exactly the kind of bounce back Martínez needed after his rough outing against Texas on the 10th when he gave up four runs.

Following up the second Ryan Noda hit a ground-rule double bringing home Esteury Ruiz making things a little closer at 4-2.

The one run given up by Martínez was a double by Luis Campusano in the fifth that made it 5-2.

There would be another solo home run by an A’s player in the sixth inning with Brent Rooker this time homering getting his 25th of the season.

Scoring stayed relatively quiet until the top of the ninth inning when with Devin Sweeney on the mound the Padres got two on base. Jose Azocar then stepped up and pretty much put the dagger in this game by getting a three run homer. That home run was Azocar’s first home run of his career as he didn’t have any in his rookie campaign.

The A’s could not form any sort of response in the ninth ending this one at 8-3.

“I think the walks killed us tonight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said after the game.

Oakland will look to bounce back tomorrow against the Padres at 1:07 p.m.