Two Factors That Led to A's Opening Day Loss Against the Blue Jays
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For the second straight year, Luis Severino pitched like the ace of the A's staff on Opening Day, and for the second straight year, the A's came away without a win. Despite some clear similarities between the two contests, Friday night's loss is a little more uplifting than last year's defeat.
Last night, Shea Langeliers was the entire A's offense, crushing two solo home runs in a 3-for-4 start to the season for the backstop. Those three hits were the only ones that the green and gold's vaunted offense would be able to manage against Kevin Gausman's (mostly) un-hittable splitter.
A year ago to the day, it was Tyler Soderstrom that went 2-for-3 with two solo home runs that had the A's ahead late in the game. Jacob Wilson added a third hit to the A's tally that game. The difference between the two is that the A's were playing from behind last night, tying the game in the ninth, while the bullpen melted down late in Seattle last year.
While Justin Sterner ended up giving up the game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth inning against Toronto, there were a couple of other factors that had more of an impact on the game than the cutter that Andres Giménez grounded to right for the win.
Defense let down otherwise solid pitching
Right before Giménez came up to bat, Ernie Clement doubled down the line on a ball he hit five feet with a launch angle of -37 degrees, but due to the surface of the field at Rogers Centre, it bounced high into the air, over the head of Max Muncy, and into the outfield.
The problem here appeared to be the positioning of Muncy, who looked to be near the grass when the ball was hit. The A's commentators said the club was playing double play depth, but with two outs Muncy looked to be protecting against a bunt, which didn't make a lot of sense. Because he was in, that ball was able to go over his head, and Clement had his double.
Granted, it was hit so high that Clement may have ended up at first anyway, but there would have been runners on first and second instead of second and third. That's a pretty big difference.
The other play that cost the A's a couple of runs was the misplay in the outfield between Denzel Clarke and Tyler Soderstrom. Clarke is one of the best defenders in baseball, and Soderstrom was a Gold Glove finalist last season in his first year at the position. They're good with the gloves. But on Friday night, their communication was lacking.
This just can’t happen. pic.twitter.com/trEoD3W6cj
— Jason Burke (@ByJasonB) March 28, 2026
Manager Mark Kotsay told MLB.com after the game, "It's loud and these guys haven’t played a ton together. It’s uncomfortable not knowing if your offside guy can cover that much ground. Perfectly hit ball that was fading back to Tyler. They got in each other’s vision... Neither made the play."
Last season Clarke played in just 47 games before suffering a season-ending injury, and part of the time he was up, Soderstrom was manning first base. They've had roughly a month in the outfield together, and Soderstrom has progressed a decent bit since those early days of manning left field.
Clarke was also off playing for Team Canada in the WBC this spring, so this is something that playing next to each other should solve fairly quickly.
With runners on second and third yet again and the A's clinging to a 1-0 lead, this ball just fell right between Clarke and Soderstrom in the left-center gap, allowing both runs to score. Ideally, only one would have scored and the A's would have recorded an out in the process.
That's another run that didn't need to be on the board for Toronto. This was a good showing of the small differences between the A's and a team that just represented the American League in the World Series a year ago. At least when the A's are throwing out their ace, the gap between the two clubs looks manageable. We'll see how the rest of the series shakes out.
The promising part of these defensive miscues is that they're fixable. The play in the outfield was like a sound-related issue with the ballpark having some extra juice for Opening Day and the home team threatening.
The bouncing double could be as simple as adjusting the fielder's cards for when they're playing on a trampoline surface.
Why didn't the A's challenge any calls?
Just watching the game on Friday night it was obvious that the A's were leaving some calls on the field instead of challenging them and getting a strike called turned into a ball. The most blatant of these was the final pitch to Nick Kurtz, leading off the fourth inning. It was called a strike, though it was well outside the zone.
For someone like Kurtz that has a pretty good sense of the zone, it was odd just seeing him walk away after that called strike, instead of trying for (and getting) a walk.
It also doesn't help that the next batter, Shea Langeliers, crushed the first of his two home runs, and this one helmet tap would have given the A's three runs instead of two heading to the bottom of the ninth. Perhaps they attack that final frame differently with a lead.
In fairness, there was also a pitch just off the plate to Langeliers in that fourth inning AB that would have made it a 3-0 count if he'd challenged. Instead, he got a pitch to hit a drove it out to left field for the A's first hit of the season. In the moment a 2-1 count with Gausman rolling seemed much worse than a 3-0 count, but it worked out in this case.
These are the little things that the A's are going to have to tighten up as the season goes along in order to reach their goal of postseason play. They played Toronto closely, which is an accomplishment of sorts, but they also had a couple of clear paths to a win in this one, too.
Perhaps the strategy to begin the season is to limit the ABS challenges until later in the game to ensure they're still available for an even bigger spot down the road.
Even if that is the case, the A's shouldn't just be ok with taking a strikeout when they've earned a walk. That's how the can put pressure on opposing pitchers and keep the line moving. It would be dumb to stop the line yourself.
The A's batters didn't challenge any pitches tonight and lost by one run. pic.twitter.com/GtiusXiJ0m
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) March 28, 2026
The orange circles outside of the box are all of the pitches that the A's took for called strikes that were actually balls. The Kurtz one we mentioned seems to be the worst of the bunch, given the situation and how far from the zone it looks by comparison to the other orange dots.
Fortunately, there are still 161 more chances for the A's to improve upon this performance. The A's and Jays will be back at it again on Saturday, with Jeffrey Springs set to face Dylan Cease. First pitch is scheduled for 12:07 p.m. (PDT).
For more A's news and insights, follow Jason @ByJasonB on X, or the site @InsideTheAs!
Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.
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