New York Mets’ Francisco Lindor , front left, hits a grand slam against the Oakland Athletics during the second inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri Apr 14, 2023 (AP News photo)
New York (NL). 060 061 004 – 17 11 0
Oakland. 001 211 100. – 6.13 0
Time: 3:29
Attendance: 11,102
Friday, April 14, 2023
By Lewis Rubman
OAKLAND–On April 17, 1962, I rode the subway from New York’s alphabet city to 155th Street and Eighth Avenue, the site of the decaying and fetid Polo Grounds.
Once there, I took in the game between the two new entrants in the just expanded National League, the Houston Colt ‘45s and New York’s replacement for the Dodgers and Giants, the Mets. Houston won, 5-2 in 11 innings, bringing their record to 4-2 while the Mets dropped to 0-5, on their way to a 120 loss inaugural season, good for tenth place in a ten team league. (They didn’t have divisions then).
This evening, the visitors from Queens, who have been playing well under the level of their payroll but still are a formidble outfit, clobbered their hosts, 17-6.
Things have changed in the past 61 years. The Houston Colt ‘45s now are the American League’s powerhouse Astros, and the talent starved Mets are bursting with highly paid superstars, especially in the pitching department. Their hosts this evening were, back in ’62, still in Kansas City. No one knows where they’ll be based to or three years down the road. As the cliché has it, the only constant is change.
The Athletics, who began to show some signs of life in the Baltimore series that wrapped up their first, disastrous road (actually, air) trip of the year, announced a few roster moves before game time. They recalled southpaw hurler Hogan Harris, Oakland’s third round selection in the 2018 draft, and promoted infielder Tyler Wade from Las Vegas and optioned right handed pitcher Adam Oller and the good field, maybe one day good hit Nick Allen to the Aviators. They also designated outfielder Cal Stevenson for assignment.
The Mets of 2023 sent Kodai Senga, with a 2-0, 1.59 record this season, his first in MLB, to the mound. He is, however, no raw rookie; his lifetime mark in Japan’s Pacific League was 87-44, 2,59. That the Mets would feature an 11 year veteran of Nippon Professional Baseball would have been unheard of in 1962., Senga throws four seamers at an average of 96.6 mph, using them 40.4% of the time, 38.7% against lefties and 41.4% against right handed batters.
Senga uses the forkball 23.6% of the time and the sweeper another 20.2%. The fourth pitch in his repertory is the cut fast ball, coming in at 15.7% and 90.7 mph. His fork ball is so effective that it’s been called the “ghost fork” because, as the Mets’ game notes tell us, “its break gives the appearance that it disappears out of the strike zone.” Unlike Oakland’s Shintaro Fujinomi, he hasn’t had any issues that led to a demotion to the minors in his native country.
A quick glance at the record of Oakland’s starting pitcher, James Kaprielian, did not inspire confidence in his performance in the opening of this three game series against Metropolitans. He had started two games, allowing five earned runs in as many innings against Cleveland at the Coliseum on April 3 and seven earned runs in 4-2/3 frames in the April 9 debacle in St. Petersburg, leaving him 0-1, 11.17 two weeks into the season.
He was in hot water in the first, surrendering a one out infield single to one time Athletic Starling Marte and a two out two base hit to Pete Alonso. But Marte stopped at third, and Kaprielian got Jeff McNeil to pop out to Shea Langeliers behind the plate.
Although the Oakland starter got Eduardo Escobar out on a fly to left in the second frame five walks, followed by a 439 foot blast over the center field wall by the slumping Francisco Lindor with the bases loaded had Oakland trailing 6-0 by the time the visitors’ half of the second was over. The Mets had scored six runs on one hit, and Kaprielian had thrown 39 pitches in that one frame.
Oakland made a comeback of sorts in the third. Esteury Ruíz led off with a bunt single when Senga’s throw drew Pete Alonso off the bag at first. TonyKemp’s hard line drive t third quickly became a 5-3 double play. But Ryan Noda drew a walk, and Brent Rooker’s Texas League single sent him scurrying to third. Ramón Laureano’s single to right brought Nola home to put Kotsay’s Crew on the board.
Kapriielian came out for the fourth, and he came out in th fourth, runners on first and second, the result of a leadoff single to Brandon Nemmo and another walk to Marte, followed by Lindor’s fly out to right and Alonso’s second strike out. Sam Moll entered the game at that point and got Jeff McNeill out on a soft liner to first.
Kaprielian had pitched 3-2/3 innings, in which he managed to deliver 95 pitches, 51 of which went into the books as striies. All six of the runs he yielded were earned, and they came on seven hits, one of them Lindor’s grand slam, and seven walks. He struck out four and raised his ERA to 12.15.
Langeliers closed the gap a little more in the bottom of the fourthby parking a 78 mph sweeper 375 feet,, into the left field seats with Conner Capel aboard and two away, making it a 6-3 lead for NY.
Hogan Harris made his big league debut, replacing Moll to start the visitors’ fifth. It was an inauspicious debut. After retiring Daniel Vogelbach on a grounder to second, on whih Kemp made a neat play the rookie walked Eduardo Escobar, Luis Guillorme, and Tomás Nido; hit Nemmo with a pitch, walked Marte, gave up a bases clearing double to Lindor; and then walked Alonso.
An obviously dejected Harris wallked to the dugout at that point, replaced by Chad Smith, who hit Jeff McNeill with a pitch to load the bases. Smith eventually got the side out but meanwhile allowed one of his inherited runners to score, and New York led 12-3 after five innings of play.
There was plenty of action after that, but enough details already are too many. Aledmys Diaz homered to left in the A’s fifth. After a walk to Capel, Stephen Nogosek replaced Senga and kept the Mets lead at 12-4. Senga had lasted 4-2/3 innings, not long enough to get the win. He had allowed four runs, all earned, on seven hits, two of the round trippers, and four walks. Had had seven Ks to his credit, 57 of his 96 offerings were considered strikes. His ERA ballooned to 3.38.
New York picked up another tally on back to back doubles by Nemmo and Marte in the sixth, and Rooker continued his hot streak in the bottom half of the episode, restoring Oakland’s deficit to eight runs, 12-4. After Laureano flew out to left, Jace Peterson hit a vicious liner up the middle, hitting Nogosek and forcing him to leave the game, replaced by Dennis Santana, who allowed a single to Díaz before striking Capel out looking.
Jeurys Familia set the Mets down in order in the eighth, but his control deserted him in the ninth After striking out Marte, his control deserted him, and he walked four consecutive batters giving New York a 14-6 advantage and leaving the bases loaded with one out when he was replaced by Carlos Pérez. Pérez coughed up a two bagger tp Esoobar and a single to Guillorme, and the A’s were down, 17-6 going into the bottom of the ninth facing John Curtiss, who mowed them down, 1,2,3.
It isn’t as if there were no bright spots in the A’s performance tonight. Langeliers went three for five, lacking only a triple to have hit for the cycle. Rooker continued to rake, going two for four with a dinger.
Santana was credited with the win; he’s 1-0. Kaprielian, with the loss, fell to 0-2.
Tomorrow is Saturday, so Oakland’s starter will be Shintaro Fujinami (0-2, 17.55). He’ll have his third chance to show that he can get through the opposition’s batting order successfully for more than two innings. He’ll be opposed by New York’s Carlos Carrasco (0-2, 11.42) in a battle of struggling righties. Game time is 1:07.
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