Oakland shut out, Wood hammered as A’s fans boycott ownership on Opening Day

A’s batters struck out 13 times in what could be Oakland’s final Opening Day.

In spite of John Fisher’s expedition to steal and ruin the Athletics franchise, Oakland and the Coliseum will forever be enshrined in baseball history. However, today’s Opening Day game — potentially the city’s last — is surely one that A’s players and fans alike will hope to forget.

Alex Wood, earning his first Opening Day nod, struggled to keep the Cleveland Guardians lineup quiet as he allowed an ugly 6 runs in just 3 ¹⁄₃ innings. Part of that was the soft-tosser’s inability to keep his pitches away from the middle of the plate; another reason was some poor luck on defense.

After Cleveland went up 2-0 in the top of the 4th, the light-hitting Austin Hedges grounded a ball to Nick Allen at shortstop, whose throw took Ryan Noda off the bag. As he went for a force tag, Hedges knee knocked the baseball out of his glove and all the way to second base, allowing the Guardians to score another pair of runs. That play was unfortunately ruled an error on Noda, overshadowing his smooth sliding catch near the mound earlier in the game.

An 81 mph slider low and in from Wood to Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio led to a ground ball double down the right field line that cleared the bases and put the A’s in a 6-0 hole.

Fortunately, the A’s 2023 Opening Day starter Kyle Muller was available to mop up and stop the bleeding. Coming off a disastrous rookie season, the 26-year-old southpaw looked more like a viable major league pitcher today, throwing 2 ¹⁄₂ innings while allowing only one baserunner and striking out a pair. The former top prospect’s rehabilitation journey will be one to watch this season.

On offense, the A’s struggled mightily in their matchup with Cleveland ace Shane Bieber. In just 6 innings, Oakland batters struck out 11 times against the 2020 Cy Young winner and only managed 4 hits, half of which came from JJ Bleday. They didn’t have much better luck against Steven Vogt’s bullpen either, getting shut out for the full 9 innings. Fangraphs projects the A’s offense to be the worst in the league in this season, and the A’s did absolutely nothing to prove that forecast wrong today.

On the bright side, Darell Hernaiz got to make his major league debut today, pinch-hitting for Noda in the bottom of the 8th. Despite flying out to center, the young shortstop was all smiles in what will surely be one of the most important and memorable nights of his life.

The Guardians ended up scoring a couple more runs in the 9th off journeyman reliever Michael Kelly, who was making his green-and-gold debut, climbing to a final score of 8-0.

Despite the unmemorable start to the season inside the ballpark, there were plenty of memories created outside the stadium as Oakland A’s fans gathered in the Coliseum parking lot to boycott the franchise and its nationally maligned owner John Fisher.

Even more importantly, boycotters raised at least $35,000 for Schools Over Stadiums, all of which will get matched by an unnamed A’s fan. That $70,000+ will allow the organization to continue funding its initiatives to get the A’s Las Vegas ballpark funding bill struck down, either by Nevada courts or a public referendum vote. In spite of the team’s Opening Day loss, the money raised and message sent are a big win for Athletics Nation as the fanbase continues its fight to keep the team where it is and where it belongs: Oakland.