Seattle Mariners Spoil A's Offseason Spending Spree on Opening Day

The first six innings of Thursday's Opening Day matchup between the Seattle Mariners and Sacramento Athletics was being written perfectly for the A's emergence into a new era for the franchise. After spending a franchise record $67 million to attain the services of Luis Severino for three seasons, he looked every bit the ace that the A's hoped he would be.

Sevvy lasted six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and four walks along with a hit batter. Still, he shut down the Seattle Mariners, one of the teams the A's figure to be chasing, and even hope to join in the race for the AL West crown this season.

With a 1-0 lead thanks to a Tyler Soderstrom home run off Mariners starter Logan Gilbert in the top of the fifth, Severino was in a bit of a jam in the bottom of the sixth, with his pitch count rising.

After getting Cal Raleigh to fly out to center for the first out of the frame, Severino walked Randy Arozarena and gave up a single to Luke Raley, putting runners at first and second with one down.

Jorge Polanco was out on what was ruled a sacrifice attempt, but it looked like he was trying to load the bases for Rowdy Tellez behind him. Instead, Severino made a nifty play, fielding the bunt attempt near the third base line, barehanding it, and firing it to first where Soderstrom hauled in the out.

With two down, it was Severino, the A's big addition of the winter, against Tellez, a new face on a Marienrs team that was fairly quiet this past winter. He started Rowdy with 98 in the heart of the plate. With the count at 2-2, he dialed up 99, which Tellez fouled off. Severino would get out of trouble on a nasty breaking pitch that caught the edge of the plate.

That is the kind of performance that the A's have lacked in recent years, and it provides some hope for their chances in 2025 if that is the type of performance that Severino will be able to provide.

That said, the Mariners would tie the game against Tyler Ferguson in the bottom of the seventh after he walked the first two batters. Then a wacky play happened, where Victor Robles squared around to bunt, and the A's thought that it was a foul ball, so nobody went after the ball that ticked off catcher Shea Langeliers' glove immediately.

In a heads up play, Ryan Bliss took off from second, and would run all the way home, getting tagged by Ferguson, but ruled safe on the field.

The A's would challenge the tag at home, and ended up winning the ruling, with Bliss sliding right over the top of home plate, but never making contact with the base.

That left a runner at third for Robles, who would promptly hit a sac-fly to tie the game at one run apiece.

It almost looked like the A's would still come away with this one after Soderstrom hit his second homer of the game, another solo shot that made it 2-1, but in the end the Mariners were too much.

Veteran José Leclerc came on in the bottom of the eighth and gave up a game-tying no-doubt home run to Arozarena, then walked Raley, and gave up a two-run shot to Jorge Polanco. Both bombs came on pitches that were left up in the zone.

Seattle would win the opener by a 4-2 final.

The Athletics couldn't have scripted a better win for themselves, but ultimately couldn't finish this one out. They received six shutout frames from their new ace of the staff, Soderstrom popped off for two home runs, and they had their late-inning guys lined up.

Of course, it's much too early to think that the A's are overmatched in this division. This was a hard-fought game, and with a packed ballpark for Opening Day, a close game likely goes to the home team more often than not.

The A's showed plenty to get excited about for the 161 remaining games on the schedule. Plus, it's not too often that Brent Rooker is going to go 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.

With the loss, the A's are now 3-9 on Opening Day against Seattle and have lost seven straight season-opening matchups to the Mariners. The A's are 9-23 on Opening Day dating back to 1994.

The A's and Mariners will be back at it again on Friday night, with first pitch scheduled for 6:40 p.m. (PT). Another new addition to the A's roster, Jeffrey Springs, is scheduled to face Luis Castillo.