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Spring Game #1: Oakland A's beat San Francisco Giants 9-4 on Marcus Semien's two homer day

In an opener graced by the presence of the legendary Bert Campeneris, the Oakland Athletics were winners during every phase of today's game against the San Francisco Giants, the final score 9-4.

Marcus Semien hit two home runs in the Cactus League opener.
Marcus Semien hit two home runs in the Cactus League opener.
Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The Athletics hit Madison Bumgarner for four runs in the 1⅔ innings he pitched to start the game, and the run producing continued, the A's winning 9-4. On offense, Marcus Semien impressed with two home runs, one off Bumgarner and one off Cody Hall. Ben Zobrist has yet to hit a single for Oakland, going 2-for-2 with a triple and a double before exiting.

Brad Mills was granted the win, starting just an inning of the game. Non-roster invitee Rudy Owens had the longest outing, pitching five outs before giving way to switch-pitcher Pat Venditte. He got right-hander Justin Maxwell to ground out to short pitching right-handed, and then struck out Brandon Belt pitching left-handed. Belt looked particularly uncomfortable with Venditte's side-arm action beginning from the first base of the pitcher's plate.

Rather than give you the rest of the blow-by-blow, here's my scorecard for today's action (click to enlarge):

On a programming note, we probably won't do a recap after every game, especially the radio-only weekday ones, but the Cactus League opener was a refreshing return to real baseball, wouldn't you say?