A’s looking for series win with Waldichuk on mound

It’s the rubber game of the first series of the season. An exciting Opening Day win was followed up by an embarrassing loss for the Oakland A’s and they’ll be hoping for a better performance from their starting pitcher today.

The A’s will be trotting out top prospect Ken Waldichuk to get the A’s back in the win column. Waldichuk didn’t have the best spring this year, throwing to a 10.54 ERA in 5 games (4 starts) but all that is now out the window. This will be his 8th career start after making 7 starts last year in the final month when he was hit-and-miss for tha A’s.

He’ll be opposed by the Angels’ newly signed starter Tyler Anderson. The left-handed Anderson signed a 3-year deal with Los Angeles after a career year with the cross-town Dodgers in 2022, but has generally been more of a backend starter for the bulk of his career.

After yesterday’s disaster, Oakland will be hoping for length from Waldichuk. Long reliever Adam Oller pitched 4 ²⁄₃ innings yesterday but they do have another long reliever in Adrian Martinez if things go sideways for Waldy, who last pitched on last Sunday at home against the San Francisco Giants. It wasn’t a great final start to his spring as he only pitched into the fourth inning and gave up 5 runs in an eventual loss, but hey, it was spring training.

With a lefty going for the Angels as well, expect to see a right-heavy lineup from the A’s similar to the one yesterday. We’ll all be hoping for better results than that game though, as they managed just 1 run on five hits in Game #2.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Sunday, April 2, 4:07 p.m. ET

Location: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California

TV: NBCSCA

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / 103.7 HD2