SACRAMENTO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Athletics (formerly of Oakland and Kansas City) formally begin the home portion of their Sacramento era when they host the Chicago Cubs on Monday night in the first-ever Major League Baseball game in the California capital.
A’s right-hander Joey Estes (7-9, 5.01 ERA), a California native, will get the honor of making the game’s first pitch. He will be opposed by Cubs righty Ben Brown (0-1, 6.75).
All 14,014 tickets have been sold at 10,624-seat Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. Those who don’t have seats will be finding space on the lawn behind the outfield fence.
Among the other unusual aspects of the home opener will be that all A’s players will be wearing No. 24 in tribute to Baseball Hall of Fame member and franchise great Rickey Henderson. The all-time stolen base leader died in December, just days before his 66th birthday.
The A’s opened with a 2-2 split in Seattle, sandwiching 7-0 and 4-2 wins between 4-2 and 2-1 losses. A’s starting pitchers Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, Osvaldo Bido and JP Sears allowed just three earned runs in 23 2/3 innings in the series.
Sears said he was just following the lead of his teammates and hopes Estes can do the same.
“It’s contagious,” he said. “You go out there and you want to do what the guys before you did, or top that. We’ve got a good group of starters that bounce off each other. We’re each different, but we can help each other out.”
Tyler Soderstrom hit three homers in the four Seattle games. Four other A’s went deep against the vaunted Seattle pitching staff, including Brent Rooker, who is excited about what he expects to experience in the team’s new temporary home.
The A’s are expected to spend three seasons in West Sacramento as they await the construction of their permanent home along the Las Vegas Strip. They will share the stadium with the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.
“I think there will be an energetic atmosphere with a lot of fans who are excited for us to be there,” he said. “We’re hoping we get a combination of local longtime A’s fans and people who are maybe new to the fan base we’re hoping to bring on board. We’re excited about it.”
Coming off a 3-1, 7.56 ERA spring, Estes will be seeking a piece of personal revenge in his second career start against the Cubs, who rocked him for nine hits and six runs in 1-plus innings in Chicago last Sept. 16. The big blow was a three-run home run in the second inning by Dansby Swanson.
The Cubs will be playing their seventh consecutive game away from home, having opened with a pair of losses to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Japan before splitting a four-game series in Arizona against the Diamondbacks. Chicago blew a 6-2 lead as Arizona scored eight runs in the eighth inning to win 10-6 on Sunday.
Still, Chicago got its bats going in the loss, with Kyle Tucker homering for the second time and Swanson and Seiya Suzuki each powering his first.
Matt Shaw, the Cubs’ top prospect, is among five Cubs who already have home runs this season.
“He can hit home runs,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said of the rookie. “(His Saturday homer) was just an aggressive swing, and that’s the kind of swing you want Matt to take — just those aggressive hacks.”
Brown pitched in relief and took the loss in the Japan opener. He has never faced the A’s.
-Field Level Media