The Athletics spent most of Monday night trying to climb out of the first inning. They never did.
Atlanta scored three times in the opening frame, then rode Bryce Elder and a sharp bullpen to a 4-0 win over the A’s at Truist Park. The loss dropped the Athletics to 0-4 to open the season and wasted a night when they got enough traffic to stay in the game, but not enough finishing to turn it.
The A’s managed seven hits and one walk. They also went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and hit into two double plays. After Toronto struck them out 50 times over the first three games, Atlanta added seven more in the opener of this series.
The first inning hole
Jacob Lopez never found a clean start.
Ronald Acuña Jr. opened the bottom of the first with a walk, then Drake Baldwin singled. Matt Olson followed with an RBI double to left, and after two outs, Mauricio Dubón lined a two-run single to right for a quick 3-0 Braves lead.
That was the game’s biggest swing. Lopez settled down after that and finished with 4.0 innings, allowing three runs on five hits with five walks and no strikeouts. He kept the A’s within range after the rocky start, but the early damage stuck.
Atlanta added its final run in the eighth. Mike Yastrzemski tripled off Michael Kelly and scored on Dubón’s third RBI of the night.
Chances came and went
The A’s were not overmatched all night. They just could not cash in.
Carlos Cortes doubled in the third, but Nick Kurtz lined out to end the inning. Tyler Soderstrom and Brent Rooker hit back-to-back singles in the fourth, only for Jacob Wilson and Lawrence Butler to leave them there.
The best chance came in the seventh. Max Muncy doubled with one out against Aaron Bummer, but Jeff McNeil popped out and Andy Ibáñez struck out as a pinch-hitter.
Soderstrom and Rooker each finished 2-for-4. Muncy added a double, and Cortes had the other extra-base hit. Still, the middle of the order never broke through. Kurtz went 0-for-4, Shea Langeliers went 0-for-4, and Brent Rooker’s eighth-inning ground-ball double play erased another late opening.
Langeliers’ season-opening hitting streak ended at three games.
Bullpen kept it close
The A’s did get steadier work once Lopez exited.
Justin Sterner threw a scoreless fifth with two strikeouts. Elvis Alvarado added a clean sixth. Mark Leiter Jr. worked around a single in the seventh and picked off Ozzie Albies. Kelly allowed the run in the eighth, but the bullpen still covered 4.0 innings and kept Atlanta from blowing it open.
There were defensive flashes, too. Lopez picked off Acuña at first after a second-inning single. Then Langeliers and Wilson teamed up to catch Acuña trying to take second in the fourth. Later, the A’s turned another strikeout-caught-stealing double play in the eighth.
But none of it changed the bigger issue.
The Athletics kept the Braves close enough to matter. They just never scored.
For one more night, the pitching gave them a chance after the early trouble. For one more night, the offense could not do enough with it.
Up next
The Athletics continue their series in Atlanta on Tuesday at 4:20 p.m. PT. The A’s are scheduled to send Luis Severino to the mound against the Braves’ Spencer Strider.
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Dice City Sports editor Mark Hebert covers the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Raiders, Athletics, and UNLV baseball and softball. He has 24 years of journalism experience, is also a senior reporter at Exhibit City News, and previously covered the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. Follow him on X or connect on LinkedIn.
