The Oakland Athletics were competitive in their series with the Chicago White Sox, but won only one of four at home to open the season.
As Oakland travels to open a set with the Seattle Mariners, the lingering question centers around the team’ s offense, which hit .212 against White Sox pitching.
“This team is going to hit,” Athletics catcher Stephen Vogt said. “We happened to run into four very good pitchers but we’ ll catch our stride.”
The good news for Oakland fans is the improved quality of the bullpen, a sore spot last year when Oakland lost late leads and were a franchise-worst 19-35 in one-run games. Liam Hendricks’ four-run ninth Thursday notwithstanding, the bullpen has been much better.
“The front office did a great job at identifying the issue and brought in experienced guys,” Athletics manager Bob Melvin said. “We feel good about it.”
Oakland starters delivered three quality starts, with the lone poor start belonging to LHP Rich Hill, who only found out the day of the game he would be Oakland’ s opening day pitcher.
“You put it behind you and expect to get better,” Melvin said. “We played three close games and one that got away. We have guys with track records. I expect us to come around.”