Opening Night energy in Oakland, where the return of fans to the Coliseum converged with the rousing presence of the Astros, reached its peak in the fourth inning.
An inside fastball from A’s starter Chris Bassitt struck Astros shortstop Carlos Correa on the left elbow. A crowd of 10,436, indignant yet over Houston’s sign-stealing scandal after a year away, burst into cheers. Four innings later, it was more subdued. Back-to-back home runs by Houston in the eighth against new Oakland reliever Adam Kolarek drew hardly a murmur.
Their bats quieted, the A’s began the season with an 8-1 loss Thursday that had a similar effect on fans eager to celebrate the return of some baseball normalcy. The A’s played Opening Night in April rather than July. Even at one-quarter capacity, their stadium roiled again. They did little, though, to stoke that fire, emerging flat against a team they expect to combat for the AL West.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing or if it’s game one or game 75,” utility player Chad Pinder said. “Each game does matter and obviously it’s not the foot we want to start out on but come back and play some baseball tomorrow.”
Pinder shone Thursday, making two highlight-reel catches in right field and notching two hits. It was a relative spark as Astros starter Zack Greinke handcuffed the A’s lineup for six innings. The A’s managed three hits against Greinke despite driving up his pitch count. Matt Olson worked an 11-pitch at-bat in the first inning and Mark Canha a nine-pitch at-bat in the third. Both struck out. Canha’s stranded Elvis Andrus, who had doubled for the A’s first hit of 2021, on third base.
“He just kept us off-balance with the slider, with the curveball, mixing that in, being able to put his heater on both sides of the plate,” Pinder said. “He is Zack Greinke for a reason and pitched a great game today.”
Against reliever Enoli Paredes in the seventh, Ramón Laureano doubled, stole third and scored on a Matt Chapman groundout. Paredes walked Olson and Mitch Moreland but escaped with strikeouts of Jed Lowrie and Sean Murphy. The A’s were 1-for-8 with men in scoring position.
Bassitt, making his first Opening Night start, matched Greinke until the fourth. He issued a lead-off walk to Jose Altuve, who took third on Michael Brantley’s double and scored on a groundout by Alex Bregman. In the sixth, Bassitt allowed a one-out double to Bregman and walked Kyle Tucker. Yusmeiro Petit replaced him and surrendered a two-run double to Yordan Alvarez, who hit a 3-1 fastball off the left-field wall.
“You can’t give free passes to that team or any of the other good lineups,” Bassitt said, “and I did that unfortunately.”
Bassitt threw 68 pitches before exiting. Only five were sliders, his new pitch. The Astros swung at three without making contact and Bassitt said it was probably his second-best pitch after his fastball. He also said it was “hard not to notice” the presence of the crowd.
“Playing in a quiet, big stadium and then playing in a stadium that’s loud is definitely different,” Bassitt said. “But it’s awesome. The adrenaline is back.”
Oakland tried to rally late. In the eighth, Pinder and Canha singled but were stranded as Olson took a called third strike that he and manager Bob Melvin both protested. The Astros piled on in the late innings. Brantley and Bregman hit consecutive homers off Kolarek, a sinker-balling left-hander who allowed one home run in 19 innings last season, in his rocky Oakland debut.
“Usually he paints, usually he’s really difficult on lefties,” Melvin said of Kolarek. “Brantley is a very tough guy on us and got some good swings off him, gets him on the run a little bit with a home run right away. We’re not going to shy away from Adam. He does a nice job.”
Melvin said pre-game he would welcome the “nervous feeling” brought on by the presence of a live crowd. Lifeless cutouts were gone from the stands Thursday. A chant of “Let’s go, Oakland” broke out during Olson’s first-inning at-bat. Horns and drums sounded. The pandemic was not forgotten; the A’s held a moment of silence for its victims.
“Hopefully the vaccine gets more and more involved and we’re able to have more fans in the stands as the season goes along - because really the fans are what make baseball what it is,” Melvin said.
Matt Kawahara covers the A’s for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: mkawahara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthewkawahara
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April 02, 2021 at 12:42PM
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A’s welcome fans’ return but lose to Astros on Opening Night - San Francisco Chronicle
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