The Athletics have finished up their spring schedule. With today\u2019s 10-9 win over the Chicago White Sox the regular season is now next. All attention now turns to Friday\u2019s Opening Night in Toronto when our A\u2019s will play some meaningful baseball against the defending American League Champions. There were highs and lows for the team this spring but all of that is now in the rearview mirror as attention turns to getting wins.<\/p>\n
But first, the recap from today. Right-hander Luis Morales got the ball for the spring finale looking to have some success before entering the season. The 23-year-old has had a rough go of things during camp and that continued today. Chicago jumped on the young righty from the jump. After loading the bases with two outs Morales gave up the big hit, a bases-clearing 3-run double that gave the Sox the early lead.<\/p>\n
That put the A\u2019s in an early hole but on the bright side Morales pitched a clean second and third innings without allowing any more runs. Still, today\u2019s outing was not inspiring and continued his tough spring. There was an expectation after his strong debut last year that Morales had a spot in the rotation more or less sewn up. Morales looks like he\u2019ll still be in the rotation after today\u2019s roster moves but the A\u2019s will want to see some results over his first couple of starts. If these struggles continue it wouldn\u2019t be a shock to see the club make a move sooner than later in regards to his rotation spot.<\/p>\n
The White Sox would add on four more runs in the fourth with Morales out of the game. Right-hander JJ Goss got lit up for all the damage, which included four hits and two walks. It was now 7-0 White Sox. Not a great way to start the day.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile on the other side of the ball the A\u2019s bats were held in check by Sox left-hander Anthony Kay. Over the first three innings the Athletics had their opportunities against the former top prospect but couldn\u2019t get the big hit to get some runs on the board.<\/p>\n
Until the fourth, that is. With Kay still in the game but most of the Athletics starters now out of the contest the A\u2019s got to work against the lefty. A single, a pair of hit by pitches, a sac fly and then a walk gave the A\u2019s their first run of the day and the bases were still loaded. Prospect Drew Swift came to the plate and went after the first pitch he saw from Kay and delivered a grand slam to make this a 7-5 game. Suddenly we had a ballgame.<\/p>\n
They were still losing but now that mountainous 7-run lead was a more manageable 2-run deficit. The A\u2019s didn\u2019t wait around, collecting another pair of walks to open the frame. Top prospect Henry Bolte was now at the plate and it was his turn to deliver. He came in clutch, smacking a two-run double to knot this game all up at 7-apiece. They weren\u2019t done there either, pushing across two more runs to take the first lead of the evening. They had come all the way back. Now it was the bullpen\u2019s job to hold on.<\/p>\n
For a minute it seemed like these two teams were about to start trading runs the rest of the way. Righty Nick Anderson got tagged for a run in the sixth thanks to several White Sox hits but he managed to keep the rally from getting out of control. The A\u2019s got that run back in the bottom of the eighth, and they\u2019d actually end up needing it too. It took four more A\u2019s pitchers to finish off Chicago, who scored one more time in the ninth to make it a one-run game but the A\u2019s held on for the win, finishing off the White Sox and ending spring with a win.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s all she wrote for spring camp, folks. The A\u2019s finished with a 14-16 record but most importantly the team didn\u2019t suffer a single major injury all camp. That\u2019s incredible luck. It\u2019s not going to last for the next six months but the A\u2019s will be at full strength for Opening Day.<\/p>\n
Next time we see our A\u2019s take the field will be on Friday evening in Toronto. Luis Severino is slated to get the ball for the Green & Gold to take on the Blue Jays, his second Opening Day assignment in as many years. The Blue Jays, though they sided Dylan Cease this year, have named Kevin Gausman as their man for Opening Day. Should be a good one, and the first of 162 games over the next six months. Buckle up folks, and get ready for a fun season!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletics have finished up their spring schedule. With today\u2019s 10-9 win over the Chicago White Sox the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[264466,264467,64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-560135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-as-game-recaps","tag-athletics-scores-and-standings","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}