A’s ‘scratch and claw’ to first home win after 0-4 start at Sutter Health Park
The Athletics had gone four games without a win in their new home ballpark. Worse yet, they never led in a game in West Sacramento before taking out the Padres, 10-4, on Tuesday night in their fifth game in their new digs at Sutter Health Park.
“Sometimes it’s easy, and sometimes it’s ugly,” said starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs. “You gotta scratch and claw and fight.”
The fight for the A’s came in the bottom of the first inning when they scored six runs all coming with two outs. It came after an early trend extended when San Diego jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the inning. The A’s had allowed first-inning runs in three of their first four games. The only exception was April 2 against the Cubs, when Chicago scored four runs in the second inning.
Springs allowed one more run in the second inning Tuesday, but then pitched four straight scoreless innings, leading to the A’s playing 2Pac’s “California Love” after the final out was recorded in the top of the ninth. It replaced the famous “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang that rang out at the Oakland Coliseum to cap wins there.
“Hey, I’m a Pac fan, so ‘California Love’ sounds good,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said afterward.
JJ Bleday, Miguel Andujar, Jacob Wilson and Gio Urshela combined for eight hits in the No. 5-8 spots in the lineup. Urshela had one of the game’s biggest hits with a two-run double in the first inning. He scored on a single from second baseman Max Muncy at batter later.
Yet despite being winless at home and struggling in front of their new fans, the A’s said they didn’t feel like they were pressing to get their first win. They knew the dam would break eventually.
“You gotta control what you can control, and that’s just the way baseball is,” Bleday said, who hit his first home run of the season on the first pitch of the seventh inning. “You gotta be patient. And we were patient tonight.”
Added Kotsay: “There’s no added weight. It feels good to get the first win, but ultimately we understand that there’s 150-plus games left in the season. And there’s (76) more left here at this stadium. So it’s a long year. It’s a long grind. You don’t want to put things in front of you that weigh on you.
“And that’s part of this process, especially for a young group learning how to just turn the page. You have to deal with failure, there’s a lot of failure in this game, and yet tonight was a good win.”
Sutter Health Park looking like a hitters paradise early
Teams have combined to score an average of 13.4 runs during the first five Major League games played at Sutter Health Park. The prevailing wind during the first series against the Chicago Cubs was blowing out toward right center field, but on Tuesday the wind was calmer.
Bleday was asked about his perspective on how the ball carries from playing center field.
“Yeah, absolutely, even in the gaps on the ground, if you hit it pretty good on the ground, it’s an automatic double essentially,” Bleday said. “It’s been like a turf field. But yeah, and then the outfield is definitely carrying a little bit more than usual.”
Kotsay said he didn’t believe five games was enough of a sample to determine how Sutter Health Park would play.
“Offense seems to be maybe ahead of where the pitching is right now,” Kotsay said. “We’ll have to wait to see. There’s not enough data to tell you exactly how this park’s gonna play. There were some balls tonight that were hit pretty well that didn’t leave the yard. So I don’t want to jump to conclusions about a yard that we’ve only played in for five days.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2025 at 11:04 PM.
