The San Francisco Giants did the bulk of their scoring in the top of the fourth and fifth innings against the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum in pre season play on Mon May 25, 2024 (San Francisco Giants X photo)

Monday, May 25, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

San Francisco. 010 120 000. 4. 6. 0

Athletics. 000 001 000. 1. 4. 1

Attendance: 7,580

OAKLAND–The rootless Athletics came back to Oakland to wind up their spring training with an uneventful 4-1 losss ti the San Francisco Giants in the first of a two game crash pad-home series at the Coliseum this evening.

The green and gold entered the fray with a 13-13 Cactus League record and an interesting assortment of veterans, including JD Davis, Abraham Toro, 29 year old 4A slugger Miguel Andújar, and an improved Paul Blackburn; inexperienced but clearly of major league calibre like Zach Gelof, with his 2023 Baseball Reference WAR of 2.6 and Esteury Ruíz, who stole 68 bases, whether the game situation called for it or not, to go along with his .248 batting average; and youngsters who are on the verge of establishing their bona fides, like Seth Langeliers, who hit only .205 (with an OPS of .683), but whose 2024 spring training numbers going into today were .372, 9.75) and Brent Rookie, who made the 2023 all-star team and then went into free fall until September, finishing the year with a mediocre batting average of .248 but an exciting OPS of .817).

And then there’s non-roster invitee Ho Jun Park, who’s seen considerable Cactus League action and was hitting over 500 when the team broke camp.

Before the gates opened, the A’s announced that they had bought right-handed pitcher Austin Adams’ contract from the Mets. Adams was added to the 40-man roster, and his fellow right handed pitcher Trevor Gott was placed on the 60-day injured list.

Matt Chapman, returning to the Coliseum in a Giants uniform, received a nice round of applause on his first plate appearance from the 7,580 fans who bothered to show up.

In on field action, San Francisco jumped to an early lead on a leadoff 375.foot line drive home run to left by Tom Murphy off a 93.2 four seamer. He duplicated that feat with another round tripper over the left field auxiliary, a 405 foot blast scoreboard that left the Giant catcher’s bat at 106.2 mph.

This one came off an 84.6 mph changeup. One out later, right handed Michael Kelly replaced the southpaw Sears, who hadn’t allowed any hits except for Murphy’s two dingers, in 3-2/3 innings, during which he threw 70 pitches, 39 for strikes. He walked four and struck out three, and was the losing pitcher, leaving him at 2-2, 2.70 for the spring.

The Giants increased their lead in the top of the fifth on a lead off double by Marco Luciano that got past a diving Lawrence Butler in right, followed by Jung -Hoo Lee’s productive ground out to second, Austin Slater’s sac fly to right and a homer to left by Wilmer Flores. By now, it was 4-0, Giants.

Zack Jackson hurled a scoreless top of the sixth before giving way to Dany Jiménez, who retired the side in order in the seventh. Lucas Erceg rode the bullpen merry-go-round in the eighth, the inning that produced the loudest response from the select gathering in the stands, cheers for a single to left by Pablo Sandoval, who had entered the game in the bottom of the seventh to play third base. Mason Miller put the visitors down in order in the ninth.

Lefty Juan Sánchez relieved Hicks, who left after holding the A’s to one base runner, Gelof, who walked in the opening frame, over five innings, in which he threw 72 pitches, 45 of which counted as strikes, and striking out 10 batters he was credited.

Another southpaw, minor leaguer Erik Miller relieved Sánchez with two on and one down in the bottom of the sixth, and he surrendered an RBI single to Toro, who had replaced Gelof as the A’s second sacker. Ryan Walker kept the A’s off the board ij the seventh, and RJ Dabvoich, a minor leaguer, unleashed two wild pitches and yielded an equal number of bases on balls but escaped unscored upon thanks to a crisp inning ending 6-4-3 double play on Rooker’s sharp grounder. Another minor league righty, Justin Garza earned the save by setting the Athletics down in order.

Both teams will wrap up their preseason activity tomorrow, Tuesday afternoon, with a 5:05 game at Oracle Park. The A’s will send Paul Blackburn to the mound; the Giants haven’t announced who will start for them.