Manaea Preparing for a Different Kind of Exhibition Game as Athletics face Giants
Pitching in an exhibition game is nothing new for Sean Manaea. The left-hander has done it repeatedly over the course of the last half decade.
Monday’s game in the Coliseum against the San Francisco Giants will be different in so many ways. It’s comes at the end of three weeks given to workout designed to get the Major League Baseball season up and running. It’s one of just two games, both against the Giants, the A’s will play before the season begins on Friday at home against the Angels.
Manaea said he’s trying to take the game as just another tune-up for games that matter, but he’s the first to admit that’s going to be a stretch.
“Yeah, it’s going to be just like any other exhibition game, minus the crowd,” Manaea said in a Sunday morning video conference call. “You’ve got to take it like a regular season game and do my normal routines and get ready that way.”
Would were it that easy.
Because of new clubhouse food restrictions, Manaea is considering making a meal at home before leaving for the ballpark, something he’s never done before. He, like all other players, has a proscribed time he can be at the Coliseum; he can’t just wander in whenever.
And feeding off the intensity of fans long denied baseball? Well, those fans will be anywhere but in the Coliseum seats, which will be populated by cardboard cutouts. There will be crowd noise, piped in, just no crowd.
“The intensity is like that one final tune-up before the regular season starts,” Manaea said. His next appearance on a mound will be Saturday in the season’s second game with the Angels providing the opposition. “(The intensity) is going to be huge. Being able to step on the gas pedal, that’s what I think will really be important.”
One thing will be a virtual duplicate of other exhibition games, however.
“You know, I’m not really looking at the results,” he said, “as long as I feel good with how my body feels and my mechanics.”
Manaea, who said earlier that he’d try pitching with a mask on, has since done an about-face and said he doesn’t like the difficult of breathing he has while wearing a mask and pitching.
There is nothing wrong with his eyes, however, and he’s looking forward to seeing a flotilla of cardboard cutouts in the stands.
“I’ll have our guys behind me and a being in a stadium with cardboard cutouts, it’s been fun,” he said. “It’s also really helpful (that) we get the whole Coliseum filled. Really cool.”
NOTES:
--The A’s released infielder Ryan Goins Sunday morning. He was one of the players for whom manager Bob Melvin said it was difficult finding at-bats for during Summer Camp. The A’s Coliseum roster now sits at 41; it will have to be at 30 when the season opens next Friday.
--Melvin said he’s still no fan of the new extra-innings rule where, beginning with the 10th inning, each team starts each inning with a man on second base. “I understand this is a great chance to try new things,” Melvin said. “But as I sit here now, I don’t particularly care for it.”
--Asked about a lineup for Monday against the Giants, Melvin said he won’t have that until he learns who the Giants’ starting pitcher is. The variables will be in left field (Robbie Grossman and Mark Canha) and second base (Tony Kemp or Franklin Barreto). The manager said the odd man out Monday probably starts Tuesday’s game in San Francisco.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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