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Logan Shore showed off why the A’s picked him second in last year’s draft. That’s it!
***Click Here to Revisit Today’s Game Thread***
Making a spot start today for the A’s, so the Angels don’t learn any of Raul Alcantara’s filthy pitching secrets, Logan Shore was the best pitcher on the mound for Oakland. For his first three innings, Shore faced just one over the minimum, and struck out fairly good baseball smashers Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout back-to-back in the first inning. Shore’s changeup, his bread and butter pitch, was the main reason his outing was so successful, keeping the Angels’ hitters off-balance and able to throw it in just about any count. Shore’s day would end after the fourth in which he allowed a run following some baserunning shenanigans instigated by an Albert Pujols’ steal with runners on the corners, but there was no doubt that his day was a complete, relatively unexpected success.
Especially when you compare him to all the other A’s pitchers’ on the day!
Liam Hendriks went one inning, allowing six hits, one of them a home run to Yunel Escobar, and five runs. Hendriks has been mostly really nice and good this spring, so it's probably fine. Probably.
Grant Holmes made an appearance as well! While the prospect has fallen a bit in most every evaluators’ rankings after his poor opening stint in the A’s organization, Holmes has a ceiling of an ace who can dominate the big leagues for a decade, and aimed to prove it today. His outing went as follows: Double, walk, RBI single, home run, hit by pitch, single, force out, strikeout. The good news is, is that he improved as he faced more batters and increased adversity, and that he is still young and has plenty of years to refine his innate talents. The bad news is that he couldn’t finish out his inning and continued to look like a player that won’t reach his high ceiling.
The only offense for the A’s today came in the top of the ninth inning when the lower-level minor league replacements position players beat up on a lower-level minor league replacement pitcher. Jaff Decker excelled out of the leadoff spot, working good at bats, hitting for power, and causing a disturbance on the basepaths. He did nothing but improve his outside chance of making the team.
The A’s lose to the Angels 14-3. They play their final spring training game in Arizona tomorrow, at the Cubs at 1:00.
