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It’s the weekend, Athletics Nation!
The Athletics took a loss on Opening Day for the second year in a row. The game wasn’t a complete drubbing though, the A’s put up a fight after getting used to Aaron Nola’s repertoire. While their successes weren’t enough to put a W on the board for the first game there are still a few things that if repeated, could lead to success over the weekend.
Strike while the park factors are hot:
Citizens Bank Park is the sixth-most hitter-friendly ballpark in the majors, and those factors have only been getting stronger year-over-year. A big bonus for the A’s specifically is the fact that in both left and right field the outfield walls are as far as ten feet shallower than in Oakland. This has already provided a direct benefit to the A’s, as Chad Pinder’s home run yesterday was hit 386 feet and would have dropped on the warning track at the Coliseum.
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The Phillies’ park is very homer-friendly and the A’s have plenty of swing-happy hitters. The symmetry of the porches also means that the advantage is open to both lefties and righties (and switch-hitting Jeds).
Trouble with the curve:
Aaron Nola took advantage of the A’s with his knuckle curve. It’s a go-to out pitch for Nola, who has success getting it to land in the lower-right corner of the strike zone. Nola threw his knuckle curve for nearly a third of his pitches yesterday, and it also generated the most swing-and-misses of any of his repertoire. The only hitter that seemed to be immune to the knuckle curve was Seth Brown, who was able to generate contact on 60% of the ones he saw, including hitting the last knuckle curve that Nola threw 407 feet into right field.
Today, the A’s face Phillies starter Kyle Gibson, who’s repertoire features a sinking curve for an out pitch, just like Nola. On Sunday the A’s are up against Zach Eflin, who (you guessed it) has a get-out-of-jail curve as well. Both pitchers also have sliders that are their second-most used pitch, especially Eflin who relies on his slider a quarter of the time. Against both starters the Athletics hitters’ best chance will be to ride the fastball. Both pitchers’ fastballs average in the low 90s, meaning the A’s shouldn’t be too overmatched by speed. A’s batters watched a majority of fastballs in the zone come in without swinging on Friday, but to take advantage of increased exit velocity and home run chances they should lay off the stuff with movement and sit fastball for the weekend.
A’s Coverage
- Hall: Game #1: A’s put up fight on Opening Day but fall 9-5 to Phillies
- Hall: Cristian Pache put on defensive highlight reel this spring
- Hall: Chad Pinder homers for first A’s hit of 2022 season
- MLB: A’s fall on Opening Day
- Kawahara: Cristian Pache draws start in center field, flashes arm in A’s debut ($)
- Gallegos: Opening Day takeaways for new-look A’s
- Kawahara: A’s fall 9-5 to persistent Phillies offense on Opening Day ($)
- Canadian Press: Schwarber goes deep for Phillies in win over Athletics
- MLB.com: Injuries & Moves: Kaprielian ramping up
- Rubin: The A’s say a new ballpark can stop their teardown culture. Should we believe them? ($)
- Allen: A rivalry 121 years in the making
- Gallegos: Athletics Beat Newsletter April 8 2022
- Kosman: Nevada governor may block Oakland A’s move to Las Vegas, sources say
- Friend: After trade from Padres, top-10 prospect Euribiel Angeles starts A’s career with Lansing Lugnuts
MLB News & Interest
- Doolittle: 2022 World Series contender tiers: How far away from winning it all is your favourite MLB team?
- Rowley: FanGraphs 2022 Staff Predictions
- Bowden: MLB award predictions for 2022: Bowden on Mike Trout’s return to form, first-time MVPs and more ($)
- Jaffe: Ke’Bryan Hayes Gets A Record Extension from the Pirates
- McCullogh: The Yankees were willing to gamble on Aaron Judge. But Judge will make an even bigger bet on himself ($)
- Lee: Can your favourite player play in Toronto? What you need to know about Canada’s COVID vaccine policy
- Deitsch: The Big Interview: Joe Davis on how he became the new voice of the World Series ($)
- Merrill: New York Yankees minor league manager Rachel Balkovec has worked her entire life for this moment
- Today in Baseball History
Best of Twitter
Happy Opening Day/Weekend, AN!
"Never take it for granted. It's a special day."#DrumTogether | #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/1IqypvCFGW
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) April 8, 2022
A great tribute to Ray Fosse
The A's organization reflects on the incredible impact of Ray Fosse He's missed every day pic.twitter.com/aAAGtUAmIB
— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) April 8, 2022
Pache has looked at home in center so far
Mark Kotsay didn’t say definitively if Cristian Pache will be regularly in CF for now, said “he earned the opportunity to go out and prove that he can be here.”
— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) April 8, 2022
Kotsay on Montas’ Friday performance
Mark Kotsay evaluates Frankie Montas' first start of the season pic.twitter.com/YBQBy2zkVh
— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) April 8, 2022
It was Jacob Lemoine’s MLB debut yesterday!
https://t.co/Ya6wIhNhWX pic.twitter.com/4wzIpYDY7m
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) April 8, 2022
Umps on mic will take a bit of getting used to
I love the umps verbalizing the calls, it is fantastic, but it is going to take me a long time to stop expecting them to say "first down, Blue Jays" at the end of these things
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) April 9, 2022
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