Mandatory Photo Credit: Athletics on X

By Jeremiah Salmonson

MESA, ARIZONA — The Athletics welcomed the San Francisco Giants to Mesa on Saturday afternoon for the A’s seventh game of the spring. The Giants, led by strong pitching and timely offense, defeated the A’s 8-2 on Saturday.

One of the A’s main focuses this spring has to be on their pitching corps heading into opening day. The A’s already have what is certainly considered one of the more feared lineups in baseball this season. The real question is with the pitching staff. Can the A’s piece together a bullpen good enough to keep them in contention in 2026? During the A’s struggles in May, the bullpen posted the worst ERA in the league, over the 8.00 mark. Granted, the bullpen pitched much better later in the season, but the damage was done.

The key in many ways for the Athletics going into 2026 will be the pitching staff.

On Saturday, the potential woes for the A’s pitching staff were on full display.

The A’s started the game with projected rotation hopeful Luis Morales.

Morales struggled in his outing, with his initial appearance lasting one and a third innings, as he gave up four runs on five hits while walking one and striking out one. Morales was lifted for Eduarniel Nunez to finish the second inning. Nunez did so, allowing two runs on one hit in two-thirds of an inning of work. In a rare move you don’t see all that often, A’s manager Mark Kotsay elected to go back to Morales for the third inning. Morales gave up another hit and another walk and recorded just one more out in his outing. As the dust settled on his outing, Morales finished going one and two-thirds innings, allowing four runs on six hits while striking out two and walking two.

After the game, Mark Kotsay spoke his thoughts regarding Morales’s start.

“Just lack of fastball command really,” Kotsay said. “He left a lot of balls up, breaking balls up. I still feel like it’s early. I definitely want to get that pitch count up. That’s the reason to take him out and put him back out there. I think the biggest thing for Luis is going to be being able to get ahead of hitters with his fastball and be able to locate it.”

Like Kotsay said, it’s certainly early in the spring. Morales has many more opportunities this spring to get himself right, and the A’s will give him all the opportunities to do just that.

The A’s staff after Nunez pitched pretty well. A few base hits aside, the A’s held the Giants off the board until the eighth inning, as JJ Goss, Tyler Ferguson, Hogan Harris, Scott Barlow, and Justin Sterner all had scoreless outings through the seventh inning.

In the eighth, Kade Morris came on for the A’s and struggled. Kade worked the eighth and ninth innings, giving up two runs on four hits while striking out one and walking one. It was the A’s lone blemish for the pen after the rough start to the game for the A’s pitching staff.

On the offensive side of the ball, the A’s also struggled.

The A’s didn’t get their first hit of the game until a fourth-inning Tyler Soderstrom single.

In terms of scoring runs, the A’s managed two runs in the game; one run came in the seventh and the other in the ninth for the A’s. Michael Stefanic had an RBI single in the seventh inning, and Cade Marlowe scored on a throwing error in the ninth inning. Those two plays were the only runs the A’s would score in the game. The Giants outhit the A’s 15-8 in the game, as the A’s failed to secure their second win of the spring, falling to 1-6 in Arizona.

The A’s will stay home to take on the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday at 1 p.m. MST at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa.