A’s beat Dodgers 1-0 in tight matchup

The Oakland A’s beat the Los Angeles Dodgers today, winning by a final of 1-0.

On the mound today was right hander Adam Oller, and he turned in another good outing this afternoon. Oller pitched four clean innings, allowing just a single and a double and a couple walks. More impressively he struck out seven Dodgers hitters, continuing to build on a great spring for the young pitcher. He now has a 1.86 ERA for the spring and is doing everything he can to make not just the team but the starting rotation as well.

As good as Oller was today, the A’s bats were more or less essentially quiet. They managed just five hits on the entire day, including two from Aledmys Diaz, but they made their hits count more than the Dodgers did. The A’s scored the game’s first and only run in the fifth. First baseman Ryan Noda drew a leadoff walk, stole second and advanced to third on a bad throw from the catcher, setting up Tony Kemp with an RBI opportunity:

That was all the A’s needed in this one, though as the pitching was dealing. Manager Mark Kotsay went with some of the expected main bullpen arms out of the ‘pen, going with Zack Jackson, Dany Jimenez, and Sam Moll in order after Oller. All three are expected to be important pieces for the group and all three had scoreless outings. Moll was shaky, loading the bases in the top of the seventh but wiggled out of the jam with a groundout. Right-hander Rico Garcia pitched into the ninth inning, but not without some stress when he put the first two Dodgers hitters on in the ninth. Kotsay went to Calvin Coker to get the final two outs and he struck them both out to end the game and secure the win for the A’s.

Oakland is now 4-8-2 this spring but hey, records don’t matter this time of year. They’re right back at it again tomorrow, facing off against the Texas Rangers in the afternoon. Righty Paul Blackburn is set for the start, and he’ll be looking to get right after a rough spring to this point.