Oakland Athletics: Strengths and Weaknesses on Display in Japan
Oakland Athletics starters struggle, but their bats flash power during a memorable two-game series at the Tokyo Dome.
The Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners inaugurated the 2019 season in Tokyo, Japan on March 20th. Worth noting: The A’s and Mariners also happened to be the last teams to open in Japan, back in 2012.
The Athletics are expected to once again, be a premier home-run hitting team with a strong bullpen. Their rotation, on the other hand, is void of the same relative certainty.
In game one of the season, Mike Fiers logged just three innings and gave up five (all earned) runs. Marco Estrada followed Fiers’ season debut with the opposite line — going five innings and surrendering three earned runs. While Estrada wasn’t terrible, neither outing provided much to be thrilled about.
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Offensively, the A’s fared better, at least in the opener. Stephen Piscotty slugged the season’s first official home run in inning number one, to dead center field off lefty starter Marco Gonzalez. 2018’s home-run leader Khris Davis launched one in the third and Matt Chapman followed with his own round-tripper in the seventh inning.
The A’s bats fell a bit more silent in game two, as they went without leaving the yard, but did manage to draw six walks.
Clearly, we must not overreact based on just two games, but it’s hard not to worry that Estrada and Fiers’ shaky performances may foreshadow what the future holds for the A’s rotation — especially without Jesus Luzardo as an option for the foreseeable future.
It has to be said, however, that the real story of this series was Ichiro Suzuki. The cross-continental baseball superstar called it a career and fittingly played his last innings in his home country, against the same team that he debuted against way back in 2001.
Related Story. Revisiting Ichiro’s All-Star inside-the-park homer. light
The man with more hits than Pete Rose — combining NPB/MLB stats — received an emotional send off from his teammates and the nearly fifty-thousand fans in attendance, before heading back into the dugout as a player one last time and evaporating through the clubhouse doors as an unmistakable legend.