The A’s committed five errors in the first three innings against the Boston Red Sox in their 9-0 loss on Monday night to become the first team in 29 years with at least 13 fielding miscues in the first five games of the season.

The mistakes came early with catcher Shea Langeliers throwing a ball into center field on a stolen base attempt by Jarren Duran two batters into the game.

Two more errors came in the second inning with center fielder JJ Bleday dropping Emmanuel Valdez’s drive to the warning track for a two-base errors and right fielder Lawrence Butler throwing the ball away on a sacrifice fly, allowing a second run to score.

Two more miscues followed in the third with first baseman Ryan Noda throwing the ball away on an infield hit by Valdez and starter Joe Boyle making a wild throw on a pickoff attempt at second base.

The A’s have made at least one error in every game with the 13 the most in the first five games of a season since the Chicago White Sox had 18 in 1995. It’s also the most errors in the first five games of a season for the franchise since the Philadelphia had 16 in 1923.

Tanner Houck struck out 10 batters in six scoreless innings to get the victory in front of an announced crowd of 6,618 fans.

“He was excellent,” manager Alex Cora said. “Mixed up his pitches. Repeated his delivery. He was the aggressor the whole night. He was ahead in the count and induced weak contact and got swings and misses.”

Jarren Duran had three hits and three steals in the first three innings, Trevor Story added a two-run double and Ceddanne Rafaela hit two sacrifice flies to help Boston score eight runs in the first three innings against the mistake-prone A’s.

Houck (1-0) did the rest with the latest strong start for Boston, allowing three hits and no walks. Through one turn through the rotation, all five starters for the Red Sox have gone at least five innings and allowed two runs or fewer. The quintet has allowed four runs overall in 28 innings, while striking out 37 and walking only one batter.

Chase Anderson finished the four-hitter for his first save.

Joe Boyle (0-1) allowed eight runs — seven earned — and eight hits in 2 2-3 innings in his first start of the season to take the loss for Oakland.

But he got no help from his teammates with the five early errors.

“We couldn’t get out of our way the first three innings,” manager Mark Kotsay said.

“We’re going to push the envelope as a group,” Cora said. “Yeah, they struggled defensively, but we put pressure on them, too.”

Oakland also became the first team in seven years to commit at least five errors in the first three innings of a game with Seattle the last to do it on Aug, 27, 2017, against the New York Yankees.

“I wish I had an answer for the defense right now,” Kotsay said. “They’re going to have to get better. That’s just all there is to it. These first five games, if you told me we were going to play as bad defensively as this, I would have said you’re dead wrong. We’ll see how they respond tomorrow.”

All it takes is a glance at the slip of paper Dave Roberts fills out each day to comprehend the challenge of going up against this mighty Dodgers squad, a 100-win team that only got better this winter. They spent a billion dollars and brought in baseball’s biggest star to an already well-oiled operation that has had its grip on the National League West for the better part of the past decade.

And yes, facing Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in succession proved to be as difficult as it looked on paper.

Making his first start of the season in Monday’s series opener at Dodger Stadium, Keaton Winn pitched well but wasn’t able to contain the big three in Los Angeles’ lineup, who powered their vaunted squad to an 8-3 win over the Giants in the first of 13 meetings between the archrivals this season.

“That’s a lot of high-powered guys, for sure,” Winn said. “You’ve really got to focus up and make pitches, especially the first five guys.”

Some combination of Betts, Ohtani and Freeman played a role in six of the Dodgers’ eight runs. The trio combined for six hits — four for extra bases — in 11 at-bats, scoring six runs and driving in three more. Catcher Will Smith, their cleanup hitter, also reached base three times and drove in a pair of runs.

“It is what it is, right? They have a good team,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Top of the lineup is about as good as any in baseball. We’ve just got to try to navigate it better.”

The rest of the lineup went 1-for-19, the one hit being a three-run homer from Teoscar Hernandez, which drove in Smith and Freeman, sending a slider from Tyler Rogers deep into the left field seats to break the game open, widening the Dodgers’ advantage to 6-1 in the sixth inning.

The 33 runs allowed by the Giants are more through the first five games than all but three other seasons in the team’s San Francisco history (1983, 2012, 2017), and 19 have come against their relievers.

“We can do better,” Melvin said of a group that has already had four members make their big-league debuts. “We also have some guys coming. That’s going to be key for us. Whether it’s Blake (Snell), Alex (Cobb), certainly Robbie Ray down the road. Closing games out is going to be key for us.”

After being slowed to start spring by elbow soreness, Winn only made two Cactus League starts prior to his first in the regular season Monday. The late start limited his workload, but he showed no signs of rust, racking up six strikeouts over his five innings.

The Dodgers swung and missed on 14 of Winn’s 89 pitches, the most whiffs any pitcher has totaled against the powerful lineup so far this season. His splitter was particularly lethal, using it to finish off four of his strikeouts, including one placed on the inside corner to ring up Freeman, but it was his slider that he threw 20 times that he was most encouraged by.

“I had to have thrown more sliders today than I threw all of last year combined,” Winn said, coming close (he threw 21 total last season). “Definitely going to build off the slider and the slider feel. It was the most I’ve ever thrown the pitch in a game. I thought I did pretty good with it. … Mainly it got guys off the split and fastball. That’s kind of what I fell into last year.”

The one walk issued by Winn, to Betts with one out in the third, came around to score when Ohtani ripped a double off the bag at first base and Freeman followed with a line drive single that screamed through the Giants infield playing on the cut of the grass with runners on second and third.

After taking eight walks in their 13-4 loss to the Padres on Sunday, Giants hitters earned five more free passes from Dodgers starter James Paxton.

But for the second straight game, they failed to capitalize, stranding nine men on base and a seventh-inning RBI single from Wilmer Flores amounting to their only hit in six at-bats with runners in scoring position.

A late addition to the lineup after bruising up his shoulder falling into the dugout the day before, Flores came up in the spots the Giants wanted against the left-hander, with two runners on base in the third and the bases loaded in the fifth, but grounded out each time before delivering in his third attempt.

A solo home run from Michael Conforto, his third of the season, got the Giants on the board in the sixth, after Paxton departed with five shutout innings on his record.

“You keep getting guys on base, you’re going to have the ability to do some damage. So just keep after it,” Melvin said. “We left some guys on base and didn’t really do well with runners in scoring position. But we will.”

Notable

Right-hander Nick Avila, 26, made his major-league debut in the seventh inning and got about as difficult an introduction to the big leagues as there is. Pitching the final two frames, Avila surrendered a pair of doubles to Betts and Freeman but notched a moment to remember, getting Ohtani to foul a 94 mph fastball into the glove of Tom Murphy to prevail in a seven-pitch battle with the sport’s highest-paid and highest-profile player.

“He’s probably the best hitter in baseball. Pretty cool to have that as my first strikeout,” said Avila, who got the ball and planned to get Ohtani to sign it. “It definitely was a hard AB, so I tip my cap to him. I just tried to beat him up (in the zone). I threw some cutters in and slipped a fastball right past him. I won that battle, but I’m sure I’ll face him again.”

Up next

The Giants will turn to their ace, Logan Webb, to snap their two-game skid in the second of three games at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles has not named a starter. Kyle Harrison will start the series finale Wednesday, and Jordan Hicks will get the ball for the home opener Friday against the Padres.

Then again, it’s not every day a guy batting .429 with a 1.232 OPS (albeit over seven at-bats) gets told he’s not good enough to play on a team that lost a franchise-record 112 games a year ago.

Ruiz, who had seen spot duty through the first week of the season after setting an AL rookie record with 67 steals last year, is being sent to Las Vegas to work on his on-base skills. The 25-year-old had a below-average on-base percentage of .308 a year ago, something A’s general manager David Forst said needs improvement.

“The reality is, to use his skills, he needs to get on base. He needs to be able to do that on a consistent basis,” Forst told reporters in explaining why Ruiz was sent down to make room for utilityman Tyler Nevin, claimed off waivers Sunday from Baltimore. “I’m hoping with everyday at-bats in Triple-A, it’s not a long stay for him down there.”

His inability to get on base consistently in spring training seemed to be a precursor to Monday’s move, since Ruiz had just a .295 on-base percentage over 61 at-bats in Arizona.

The 26-year-old Nevin, Ruiz’s roster replacement, is the oldest son of former big-league player and manager Phil Nevin. The younger Nevin was a 2015 first-round draft pick by Colorado and made his big-league debut with Baltimore in 2021. Nevin can fill in at first base, third base and the outfield.

Not only did Murphy help the Braves win the NL East, he had career-high of 21 homers, 68 RBIs and .844 OPS. Meanwhile, the A’s got Contreras from Atlanta and flipped both he and suddenly top-notch reliever Joel Payamps to the Brewers to acquire Ruiz.

All Contreras did was become what many believe is the majors’ best catcher while earning an All-Star berth and winning the NL’s Silver Slugger award in 2023, while batting .289 with 17 homers and 78 RBIs.

It looks even worse when you consider Contreras has done all that and will still make just $22,000 more than Ruiz’s $745,000 contract with the A’s this season.

Passing up the opportunity to debut at Dodger Stadium, Snell will make his first start Monday at home in the first game of the Giants’ series against the Washington Nationals. There was some belief he could start the series finale here Wednesday, but instead Snell will throw one more simulated game.

“You look at the build up you go through in spring training and it just didn’t feel like we’re there yet,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I think he’s going to feel a lot better.”

Snell threw 71 pitches over four innings at Scottsdale Stadium on Friday, racking up 11 strikeouts against Double-A competition. The Giants aim to get in the 70-80 pitch range again in his final tune-up Wednesday, the biggest difference being the setting — Dodger Stadium — and the competition, his own major-league teammates.

“It’s been pretty easy for him the first couple games,” Melvin said. “A lot of strikeouts with guys just sitting on the fastball. We can get some guys in there that will probably challenge him a little bit more. And then he’ll be ready to go after that.”

Following Keaton Winn, Logan Webb and Kyle Harrison will start the final games at Dodger Stadium. Jordan Hicks will get the nod Friday in the Giants’ home opener.

Flores shows toughness

Initially, the Giants’ lineup Monday against Dodgers lefty James Paxton didn’t include Wilmer Flores.

After Flores tumbled over the railing and into the first-base dugout at Petco Park, Melvin anticipated giving him at least a day to recover and penciled in Tyler Fitzgerald to make his first career start at first base. But shortly before the manager met with reporters before first pitch, he had a lineup change to announce: Flores was in there.

“Originally I thought there was no chance,” Melvin said. “It tells you a lot about him.”

While Flores said his right shoulder was still sore, “like when you get hit,” everything checked out when he went through hitting and throwing drills. It should come as no surprise after Flores petitioned to remain in the game Sunday after taking a nasty fall.

“Really, the reason he came out yesterday was he cut his finger pretty good and it was bleeding and we couldn’t get it stopped,” Melvin said. “He wanted to stay in the game.”

The late lineup change meant Flores’ primary first baseman’s mitt would be in use.

Had the Giants stuck with Fitzgerald, the do-it-all man had planned to employ Flores’ backup mitt. Hard to blame him for not owning one of his own, given he only picked up the position late this spring training as it became clear his path to the major-league roster was as a super-utility player.

Fitzgerald logged exactly one game at the position — during the Bay Bridge series — before being asked to start there in front of 55,000-plus at Dodger Stadium. Surely he had some experience there in high school or college? “Never,” he said. Little league? “My whole life.”

“The second time is tonight,” he said, or at least it would have been.

While he didn’t get the chance to break in Flores’ leather for him, expect to see Fitzgerald at first — and everywhere else — at some point this season.

He’s already crossed off pitching, covering eighth inning in Sunday’s blowout loss to the Padres. At shortstop, his natural position, Fitzgerald booted the first ground ball of the game, leading to four unearned runs, but said a day later, “I’ve always prided myself on defense, so yesterday was very upsetting. I’m excited. I’m not going to put any pressure on myself like I did yesterday, so hopefully I’ll be more calm than yesterday.”

Avila brings 15-0 record to bullpen

In need of coverage out of their bullpen, the Giants added a good luck charm with a roster move before Monday’s game.

At least that must be what Nick Avila is, after the righty won all 14 of his decisions for Triple-A Sacramento last season and, then, in his first appearance this year, earned the win again. While pitcher wins have fallen out of fashion, a 15-0 record in his past 15 decisions is almost absurd enough to matter.

“It was just like, are you serious, we’re starting off the year right where we left off last year,” Avila laughed from the visitor’s clubhouse. “I thought it was pretty funny. All the coaches were joking, ‘Gotta get the win, of course.’”

Avila took the roster spot of Daulton Jefferies, who was optioned to Triple-A after surrendering nine runs (five earned) over two innings in the 13-4 loss to the Padres. The Giants were in need of innings behind Keaton Winn, Monday’s starter, who is still building up after a late start to spring training.

Melvin said Avila, 26, would serve “a length role in the bullpen, which we kind of desperately need.

“Hopefully we don’t have to use him and we can get some innings out of Keaton. It’s nice to have that security blanket though.”

In other roster moves, the Giants reinstated Mike Yastrzemski from the paternity list following the birth Friday of his second child and first son with his wife, Paige. That spelled the end of Luis Matos’ brief stint with the big club, optioned back to Triple-A.

To clear space to add Avila the 40-man roster, infielder Otto Lopez was designated for assignment.

According to ESPN and ABC7, officials are prepared to offer the team a five-year, $97-million extension on the A’s lease at the Coliseum that would keep them in Oakland for at least three years, with the option to opt out after 2028, when the A’s ballpark in Las Vegas is expected to be ready for play.

It represents a huge rent increase for the A’s, who have paid about $1.5 million in rent and would start paying $19.4 million per year next year. If the team opts out after three years, it still has to pay the full amount, bringing the average rent to $32.3 million per year.

ESPN reported that the A’s wanted a two-year deal worth $17 million to remain at the Coliseum.

In addition, Oakland officials are hoping to agree with MLB on at least one of three stipulations: getting a one-year window with exclusive negotiating rights for an expansion team in Oakland; voting to leave the A’s branding and colors in Oakland; or aiding in the sale of the team to a local ownership group.

And perhaps most notably, Oakland is asking the A’s to sell their 50% share of the Coliseum to allow for redevelopment on the property.

Aiding in the difficulty is MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, who has said repeatedly that he cannot grant any guarantees as it relates to expansion, seeing as the 30 owners would first need to vote on expansion. That vote isn’t expected to take place for years, not until the A’s and Tampa Bay Rays start playing in new ballparks. And Oakland would have to join a competitive pool of cities who are also hoping for an expansion team, among them: Nashville, Portland, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, San Antonio, Montreal and perhaps Sacramento.

Sacramento officials have talked openly about their desire to add another pro sports team. Kings owner Vivek Ranadive said last week he’s friends with A’s owner John Fisher and is hoping, if the A’s come to Sacramento, it would prove to MLB that Sacramento is a viable option for expansion. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said recently that he’s hoping the A’s remain in Oakland, but if they don’t, Sacramento would welcome the A’s on a temporary basis.

Neither the A’s nor the Oakland mayor’s office responded for comment on Monday, but both sides have offered amicable remarks over the last two months as they’ve come back to the bargaining table to see if they can keep the team in Oakland a little while longer.

For the A’s, it’s simple: They need a temporary home.

Staying in Oakland would be the easiest move. It’d require no new negotiations with the A’s broadcasting partners, NBC Sports, and they would retain their reported $67 million in local media rights compensation by keeping the team at the Coliseum.

If they move to Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, the Triple-A home of the San Francisco Giants, the A’s would have to renegotiate a media rights deal that could see their annual compensation take a big cut. Sacramento is the 20th-ranked media market in the country, according to Nielsen, making it the largest one-team media market in the country.

Sutter Health Park, built in 2000, has one of the largest capacities of any minor league ballpark. It seats just more than 10,000, then fits another 4,000-plus people in standing areas and grass berms in the outfield.

Of course, it’s uncertain whether or not the A’s would need that much seating.

They averaged just 6,680 during their first homestand of the season against the Cleveland Guardians, when they went 1-3 while being outscored 29-11.

They had fewer fans show up for the entire series (26,722) than they had at their Opening Day game last year (26,805).

A’s fans have clearly become disenchanted with a team that only recently took down its “Rooted in Oakland” signage that had been up since 2017, when the team announced its “commitment to building a ballpark in its longtime home city.”

Fisher ended that idea last spring, when the team announced it was moving to Las Vegas after the city promised $380 million in public funding for a new ballpark. At least some of that money is in question, though, as the Schools Over Stadiums political action group will find out April 9 if it can begin collecting signatures for a referendum that would give voters a say in November.

Schools Over Stadiums spokesman Alex Marks believes the group has raised enough money — largely thanks to A’s fans in Oakland — and signed up enough volunteers to collect the necessary signatures in time.

Marks said if they’re able to get any of the $380 million in public money revoked via a vote in November, or via a lawsuit that ruled Senate Bill 1 as unconstitutional for raising taxes without a two-thirds supermajority, Fisher’s deal with Las Vegas would fall apart.

“It’s a house of cards,” Marks said.

To protect themselves, the A’s could sign a long-term lease with the Coliseum that would give them time to figure out a next step.

In the meantime, they’re off to another horrible start on the field and in the ticket office.

MLB is hoping the A’s will figure out where they intend to play next season as soon as possible so the league can release its 2025 schedule sometime in the early summer.

He throws batting practice, coaches third base, chats with parents while scribbling the lineup onto a notepad, empties trash cans and locks the gates.

The son of Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants star pitcher Vida Blue grew up around America’s pastime, and he’s all-in as a first-year softball head coach for the Hayward school’s program.

“I love being on the field,” Blue said. “Sunflower seeds, chewing gum and hitting some balls around during batting practice.”

To many, Derrick Blue, 54, is the son of the late Bay Area baseball legend and forever the kid who spent part of his childhood wandering the Coliseum’s clubhouse and expansive foul territory.

To Mt. Eden senior Andrea Toledo and the rest of the Monarchs, he’s just “Blue,” their upbeat former assistant coach and the obvious choice to succeed longtime leader Nick Sanchez when the 69-year-old retired in December.

“I was thrilled when I heard that he was going to become our head coach,” Toledo said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s laid back, because he pushes us to be the best we can.”

Blue described himself as a so-so ballplayer, and chuckled as he recalled the memory of his fifth-grade baseball coach in Alameda telling him, “I can’t wait to see you coach.”

Vida agreed with that prediction.

When Derrick moved back to the East Bay from Sacramento a few years ago and was mulling over whether or not to get back into coaching, the elder Blue was his biggest supporter.

Derrick, who works as a transportation analyst for the state, had coached softball in different East Bay rec leagues and then at San Leandro High when Sanchez asked him to join the Mt. Eden staff.

“I remember he was like, ‘Do you like coaching?’ And I would be like, ‘Yeah, I do,’” Blue remembered.

“Do it, and do it the best that you can,” Vida told his son.

Derrick threw himself into his role as an assistant at Mt. Eden, but had to take a step back last spring with his father’s health ailing. Vida Blue died on May 6 after a long battle with cancer.

After Derrick gave so much time and energy to the team, the Monarchs were there for the grieving coach when he needed them the most.

“We wanted to be a support system for him,” Toledo said. “We just wanted to be sort of a community that he could come back to and count on.”

Blue vividly remembered the day he returned to the team.

He said the players stopped what they were doing when they saw him standing by the fence, ran up to the man and then embraced him in a team group hug.

“That was probably the closest moment I came to crying, because they wore these blue wristbands for me,” Blue said. “That really got to my heart.”

He had a short but poignant message for the teenagers after that.

“Make sure you hug your parents tonight.”

Blue said his father had become his “best friend” over the last 15 years, the two sharing an obsession with both LSU football and Major League Baseball.

“We’d go to dinner a couple times a month, and I remember the last time we went to dinner, I had to go to the bathroom, and he says, ‘I’m paying for dinner, man. You don’t have to hide,’” Blue said. “He always had that sense of humor, and I’ll miss that.”

Though Vida played on both sides of the Bay, where the former MVP and Cy Young winner’s allegiance lay was clear during their conversations.

“I remember he would text or call me when he was out golfing asking, ‘Did we win?’ And I knew who he meant,” Blue remembered. “‘Did we win’ meant ‘Did the A’s win?’”

Blue said he hopes the A’s will stay in Oakland, but that he understands the chances of that are slim. He added that he will represent his father regardless of where his favorite team ends up.

“My dad and I did discuss this,” Blue said. “It is a business. Unfortunately, whether you believe that the A’s did enough to build a fanbase, or the fanbase didn’t do enough to support them, it is a business.”

As the younger Blue noted, Vida wholeheartedly supported his son as both a young baseball player and later as a softball coach. However, he did so from afar and was only able to watch a small portion of one of Derrick’s games as a player.

Fans mobbed the ace pitcher shortly after he arrived at an Alameda diamond back in the 1980s.

While holding a bag with the McDonald’s fast food he and his son were going to eat after the game, Vida Blue had to leave after just a few minutes while his son watched from the field.

By the time Derrick became an assistant at Mt. Eden, his father’s poor health prevented him from attending any games.

“One of those things I wish he had the opportunity to do was to watch me coach, and say a few things to the girls,” Blue said. “He loved softball.”

Derrick’s similar love of the sport is obvious when he coaches and was one of the reasons Sanchez felt comfortable stepping away at the end of 2023.

“He has that energy and that sweet disposition that kids love,” Sanchez said. “He’ll be a good coach. I’m proud of him. He’ll ask me for advice from time to time, and I’ll give it to him because I want Derrick to do well.”

One of Blue’s goals as head coach is to continue Sanchez’s mission of instilling a sense of pride in the Mt. Eden program.

Blue and the players put up blue and gold Mt. Eden banners around the recently repainted softball field. The outfield is still uneven, and the fence is bent out of shape, but the coach said the facility is in far better condition than it was a few years ago.

“When I first got this job, I wanted to make this look like the other schools,” Blue said. “Let’s put some paint on this thing and make it playable. The girls take pride in it.”

Mt. Eden consistently shows why it’s one of the best teams in the West Alameda County Conference Shoreline Division when it takes the field.

The Monarchs haven’t had a losing season since 2014, and Blue said that making it back to the North Coast Section playoffs is all he wants.

With talented players such as Toledo, Annelise Burgos and Jasmine Cruz on the roster, that’s well within the realm of possibility.

“My biggest goal is to get us a NCS game, because I want them to be able to line up on the baseline and hear their name being called out,” Blue said.

And nobody should be surprised if that happens.

After all, winning in the East Bay runs in the family.

But this was no ordinary split of a four-game series in San Diego.

No, it was a roller coaster ride of emotion, featuring the best and worst the Giants had to offer, all in one long weekend.

Here are my six takeaways from the season openers:

UP: Matt Chapman

There are not many position players in baseball who can dominate an entire game. To do so requires next-level ability at the plate and on the diamond.

The Padres have a player who can do it — Fernando Tatis Jr. On Friday night, the perennial MVP candidate hit two home runs (including one that was impossible) and flashed serious leather in right field, where he won the Platinum Glove last season.

But the Giants won that game, because they have a player like that, too.

Matt Chapman also hit two home runs Friday. He’s a two-time Platinum Glove winner who has wasted no time proving that he still has it in the field. His absurd day (three extra-base hits, five RBI, a game-ending double play I’m still thinking about) should have served notice to the rest of the National League West that the Giants—yes, the Giants—have a star player in their lineup every day.

At the very least, they should know not to hit it to the left side of the infield. His pairing with Nick Ahmed is spectacular.

DOWN: Joey Bart

As in, he was designated for assignment before Sunday’s game.

I actually have little problem with how the Giants handled this situation. The team wasn’t going to carry three catchers all season, but had they made this move (Bart was out of options) at the end of spring training, San Francisco would have certainly lost the former No. 2 overall pick.

They might still lose him. Frankly, they should lose him. But by waiting until the season was a few days old, Farhan Zaidi likely limited the list of suitors. Going into the first game of the season, a roster is fluid. No decisions have truly been made. But by waiting until every team in baseball had to cull their roster to 26 players, the Giants stand a chance (even a slim one) of getting Bart to Sacramento. Teams that just made a tough decision probably don’t want to go back and tell the catcher who made their team, “We’re going with the stranger,” a week later.

Still, I expect Bart to go elsewhere.

It would be a huge but strange win if the Giants can get Bart through waivers.

But Bart is the third-best catcher in the organization right now. As long as that’s the case, he can’t be carried on the 26-man roster.

Meanwhile, Tom Murphy looks like he might be the best, but it’s early days. (My goodness, has he hit the ball hard.)

UP: The Giants’ bonafide starters

Logan Webb deserved better on Opening Day. He was nasty in the best possible way.

And Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks were both marvelous in their season debuts.

Harrison’s four-seam fastball is still sneaking up on hitters — he picked up five whiffs on it Friday, as he had an average of 21 inches of vertical break on it. That, paired with his repeated release point, strong tunneling, and ability to hide the ball makes 93 look like 98 miles per hour. I’m not sure Stuff-plus and other pitching evaluation models can take his deception on pitches into account. And while the breaking pitches still need some work, there’s a lot of promise for Harrison yet.

Hicks’ debut needs no interpretation. Even though he’s taken a few miles per hour off his pitches, he’s finding the zone more than when he was a reliever, and he’s borderline unhittable when he’s cooking. He had such stretches on Saturday.

Hicks has a chance for a special season if he can master the feel of that splitter.

DOWN: The other two spots in the rotation

Daulton Jefferies seems like a nice guy, and it’s a hell of a story that he’s back in the big leagues, but, well, that’s about all I can say after a two-inning, nine-run (five earned), one-strikeout start Sunday. Happy Easter!

And on Monday, the Giants are going Johnny Wholestaff against (checks my notes…) the Dodgers.

Blake Snell and Alex Cobb cannot join this rotation soon enough.

UP: Situational hitting

The Giants started the season 11-for-33 with runners in scoring position, driving in 19 runs and posting a .912 OPS.

Chapman has three hits with RISP, Ahmed two. Wilmer Flores also has two, but Michael Conforto, who had a monster series, hit a grand slam on Saturday, so that takes the cake.

The Giants’ offense should be solid this season, but they’re not going to bop with the best teams in baseball.

Situational hitting will determine whether this team is just another mediocre club or something more. You have to like the (very) early returns.

DOWN: Camilo Doval in a non-save situation

I know he needed the work, but did no one tell Bob Melvin about this?

Before long, that excitement had faded into agony as the Giants’ Easter Sunday turned into a day from hell.

In a 13-4 loss to split the four-game set with the Padres, Jefferies received a rude welcome back to the big leagues, surrendering nine runs (five earned) and a pair of homers. The onslaught continued against his replacement, Kai-Wei Teng, who needed 40 pitches to complete his first inning in the majors before recovering to make it through three frames.

“It was a tough day, a weird game all around,” Melvin said afterward.

To add, well, injury to insult, the Giants also lost one of their most beloved and important players when Wilmer Flores injured his throwing shoulder tumbling over the railing of the first-base dugout on the Padres’ second batter of the game. He was diagnosed with a right shoulder contusion, but Melvin said afterward that Flores had avoided any significant injuries.

After rollicking the past two games, a blowout loss dealt a blow to whatever momentum had been built heading into a big series at Dodger Stadium and with another three games against the Padres on deck when the Giants return home.

The good news is the Giants shouldn’t have to wait long for reinforcements for their starting rotation. Blake Snell went four innings in a minor-league game Friday, and if he’s ready to step into the rotation for his next turn — which lines up for the series finale Wednesday in Los Angeles — San Francisco wouldn’t need another spot start.

After impressing with his strike-throwing in spring training, limiting opponents to a 2.25 ERA with a 15:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio, it was decided before the Giants left for San Diego that Jefferies would start their fourth game of the season, though he was only added to the roster before first pitch. (In a corresponding move, former No. 2 overall draft pick Joey Bart was designated for assignment, bringing an end to his tenure with the organization.)

A fellow Cal product, Melvin said he played the Golden Bears fight song for Jefferies when he informed him he made the roster. The two go back to their days in Oakland, where Melvin managed Jefferies as an up-and-coming prospect before his career was sidetracked by two Tommy John surgeries and thoracic outlet syndrome.

Jefferies had no trouble finding the plate, but Padres hitters — and his own defense — repeatedly punished him.

The Padres plated five runs while bringing eight men to the plate in the first inning, capped off by a three-run homer from Luis Campusano, but only one run was charged to Jefferies. Rookie shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald, making his first of the season in place of Nick Ahmed, booted the first ball off a Padre’s bat, allowing leadoff hitter Xander Bogaerts to reach base on a fielding error and prolonging the inning to bring Campusano to the plate.

“You go all offseason preparing for the first game of the year, and I just kind of let the game speed up on me,” said Fitzgerald, whose day was far from over. “Hopefully I can learn from that and calm my emotions and just get ready for the next game.”

All four of the Padres’ runs in the second inning were earned, with Ha-Seong Kim launching another three-run shot into an open window in the Western Metal Supply Co. building in left field that extended San Diego’s lead to 9-0.

Kim turned on a middle-in changeup and left no doubt, while Campusano lifted a fastball that just cleared the short porch in right field, 329 feet away. Both home runs came on the first pitch of the at-bat.

While Jefferies said he was “happy to get back on the mound, for sure, at the end of the day, I didn’t really do my job. … I could feel good all I want about getting back here, but when I got back here I wanted to compete and help the team win. I just didn’t do that today. … Welcome back to the big leagues.”

The Padres’ starter, Michael King, was equally ineffective, issuing seven walks over four innings, but the Giants failed to capitalize.

With a rally brewing in the fourth, the Giants had two runs in and two men on base with one out when Jorge Soler popped a pitch into shallow left field. Kim, the shortstop, backpedaled but missed the ball, allowing it to fall to the grass, about 40 feet beyond the cut of the dirt.

Rather than ruling it an error or a base hit, the second base umpire, Adam Hamari, called an infield fly. The Giants runners advanced to second and third, but Soler was ruled out for the second out of the inning, and the threat was extinguished a batter later when LaMonte Wade Jr. was called out on strikes.

In his first spat with an umpire from the Giants’ bench, Melvin voraciously protested the call to no avail.

“It was in the outfield when it was dropped,” Melvin said of his argument. “It wasn’t a routine play.”

The rout ended with the first position player to pitch for the Giants this season, Fitzgerald’s reward for his error in the field and hat trick at the plate.

While Fitzgerald has earned the reputation for playing anywhere, even beginning to pick up first base, pitching was something new for him. He hadn’t stepped onto a mound since his freshman year at Rochester High School in Illinois. It didn’t come with much notice, only told of the plan when he returned to the dugout after his at-bat in the top half of the inning.

“He asked me, ‘Have you pitched before?’ I said, ‘No, but I can do it,’” Fitzgerald said.

He retired the side on 11 pitches, one of the Giants’ quickest innings of the afternoon.

“We’ve been out there on defense long enough today,” he said. “Just get off the field as fast as possible.”

Notable

Teng made history when he stepped onto the mound to begin the third inning, becoming the only active Taiwanese player in the majors — the 17th all-time — and the first ever in Giants history. While he was tagged for three runs on three walks and a pair of hits in his 40-pitch first inning, he settled in to retire six of the next seven hitters he faced while recording four strikeouts.

Growing up in Taiwan, an island nation southwest of Japan, Teng’s favorite pitcher was Yu Darvish, and he got to meet the Padres starter this series.

More than that, Darvish gifted Teng one of his gloves, a natural leather Asics mitt with teal accents embroidered with Darvish’s signature.

“That was the most meaningful moment in my baseball life so far,” Teng said in Mandarin through interpreter Matt Chan. “The first day, our bullpen catcher introduced Darvish to me because they know each other. He told Darvish this is my debut, and he said this year is going to be a really big year for you. This glove shows that I’ll be rooting for you.”

Up next

The Giants head up the coast for a three-game series at Dodger Stadium to close out their opening road trip. Keaton Winn is scheduled to start Monday against left-hander James Paxton, though he isn’t expected to go longer than five innings as he continues to build up his workload after being sidelined to start spring training.

“It’s hard to win here, so to put those three games behind us, we can come out here with a good taste in our mouth and get ready for Boston,” said A’s starter Paul Blackburn, who took a perfect game into the fifth inning and a shutout through seven.

Indeed, as the Red Sox (2-2) arrive in town for a three-game series, the A’s won’t be wallowing in a winless start to a still very suspect season, one that could end a 57-year residency here unless negotiations with Oakland officials keep them longer before a planned move to Las Vegas in 2028.

“Nobody wants to start 0-4,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “I was proud of the effort there, and the fight-back we showed after the eighth inning. That’s a good sign of this club not folding or not having the energy to bounce back from what was pretty ugly, to turn things out to a positive day.”

Blackburn was intent on delivering that victory, exiting with a 3-0 lead. The Guardians promptly scored three runs in the eighth off A’s relievers Lucas Erceg and Austin Adams, setting the stage for a ninth-inning nail-biter.

Abraham Toro’s bases-loaded, four-pitch walk brought in Darell Hernaiz for the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

The A’s loaded the bases in the ninth, behind Ryan Noda’s walk and back-to-back singles from Shea Langeliers and Lawrence Butler. Hernaiz, pinch-running for Noda, got a bad jump on Butler’s hit to center field, thus delaying the A’s walk-off celebration. Eli Morgan entered for the Guardians and didn’t throw a strike to Toro, who watched a 90-mph fastball sail high to essentially end the 2 ½-hour affair.

The season-opening series attracted a total of 26,902 fans, not counting the thousands who stayed in the Coliseum parking lot on Thursday’s Opening Night as a protest of the A’s planned move to Las Vegas by 2028.

The official crowd count for that 8-0 opening loss was 13,522, or about half of last year’s home debut, when 26,805 saw the A’s beat the Angels and eventual two-time MVP Shohei Ohtani. But that A’s team stumbled to a 3-16 start and lost 23 of their its 28 games.

“Getting this first (win) out of the way, you can relax, get the edge off, have fun and go play baseball,” said catcher Shea Langeliers, after the A’s first Easter-day win in 10 years.

Blackburn said he and Langeliers stuck to their game plan inning after inning, up until Blackburn got pulled before the eighth. He allowed three hits and one walk in 88 pitches, with three strikeouts.

“You have to kind of realize it’s still March. I wanted to go all nine (innings) today but in the big scheme of things, this is a marathon,” Blackburn said. “My pitch limit was 85 to 90 my first time out and that’s about right where I landed.”

Josh Naylor broke up Blackburn’s perfect game in the fifth with a leadoff single to right field. Blackburn soon found himself in a bases-loaded jam after allowing an infield single to former A’s star Ramón Laureano and a four-pitch walk to Estevan Florial. The shutout stayed intact, however, when Blackburn got No. 9 hitter Gabriel Arias to fly out to shallow right field, where second baseman Zack Gelof battled the sun to snare the third out.

In the seventh, Laureano reached on a two-out single, and with Erceg up in the A’s bullpen, Blackburn got Bo Naylor to pop out to Gelof to end that threat.

Blackburn didn’t allow a base runner through four innings. His day opened with a 92.1-mph fastball for a called strike against Steven Kwan, who eventually lined out to right.

Blackburn’s dominance shouldn’t have been too stunning after his 4-0 showing in spring training. That ended with six no-hit innings against the Chicago Cubs on March 20, then just two hits by the Giants over 5 2/3 innings last Tuesday.

Blackburn, 30, was the A’s 2022 All-Star representative, and the Heritage High-Brentwood product deserved a win Sunday that would have improved his career record as a starter to 17-24.

Dany Jimenez came on to pitch the ninth for the A’s and immediately found trouble: Bo Naylor walked, and Florial reached on a Gelof error. Langeliers picked off Naylor at third base to slow the rally, and although Jimenez had an ensuing pickoff attempt sail into center field, the Guardians couldn’t scratch across a go-ahead run in the frame.

But in the equalizing eighth inning, Erceg allowed a leadoff triple to Florial, who would score on a groundout to spoil the A’s shutout bid. Once Erceg allowed a two-out single to Andres Gimenez,  Adams entered and promptly threw his first pitch behind Jose Ramirez. The lead was cut to 3-2 when the Guardians scored off an error by shortstop Nick Allen, and Blackburn’s potential win officially vanished when Naylor’s single off Allen drove in a tying run.

The A’s jumped out to a 2-0, first-inning lead via J.J. Bleday’s RBI triple and Seth Brown’s single that scored Bleday. Esteury Ruiz scored the initial run after leading off with an infield single and stealing second. That marked only A’s second lead all season. Their first was short-lived, having gone ahead 3-2 in Saturday’s third inning, only for the Guardians to answer with three runs in the fourth inning to spark their 12-3 rout.

Sunday’s lead grew to 3-0 in the fourth, as Ruiz tripled down the right-field line and again scored on a Bleday hit, this time on a single to right.

“We need to add onto a lead to make things more comfortable,” Kotsay said, “but a win is a win.”

They’ll try for the next one against the Red Sox. First pitch Monday is set for 6:40 p.m.

“The Red Sox coming to town is always exciting,” Langeliers said. “But’s it’s the big leagues and, in my head, I’m excited to play anybody.”

NOTES

The A’s claimed infielder Tyler Nevin off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles, while designating pitcher Adrián Martínez for assignment. Martinez went 4-8 with a 5.51 ERA in 34 appearances (13 starts) the previous two seasons.

Nevin, 26, is the oldest son of former big-leaguer Phil Nevin. A 2015 first-round draft pick by the Colorado Rockies, he made his Major League debut in 2021 with the Orioles. Primarily a third baseman, he’s batted .203 in 266 career at-bats (five home runs, 29 RBI) between the Orioles (2021-22) and the Detroit Tigers (2023). He played 41 games for the Tigers last year when he wasn’t splitting time at Triple-A Toledo (.326 batting average, 15 home runs, 58 RBI).

Flores left the game the following inning and was diagnosed with a contusion in his right shoulder but other than some cuts and scrapes is “doing all right,” manager Bob Melvin said afterward. “Believe it or not he tried to stay in the game.”

The second batter of the bottom of the first, Fernando Tatis Jr., popped a pitch from Giants starter Daulton Jefferies into foul territory to the right of first base. As Flores tracked it down, his path took him toward the Padres’ dugout, where he collided with the railing and tumbled headfirst onto the top step.

He collided with the bench, breaking his fall and didn’t hit his head — “thank God,” Flores said — but messed up his shoulder and back.

“It feels pretty sore right now,” Flores said. “I thought I had a chance, but I didn’t realize how dangerous it was. At the time I was just looking at the ball. After I fell, I don’t know what happened.”

Wilmer Flores stayed in the game after falling into the Padres' dugout in an attempt to catch a foul ball pic.twitter.com/FveC5mQTGN

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) March 31, 2024

Flores laid on the dugout floor for a few minutes while a commotion ensued to make sure he was OK. Melvin and multiple Giants trainers sprinted from their dugout on the third-base line to check up on their beloved first baseman, while the remainder of the Giants infield rushed over to the dugout railing.

“He missed the whole second level and went all the way down. There’s a step and then one more and he went all the way down there,” Melvin said. “It was pretty scary.”

Flores initially remained in the game to finish the inning in the field, even ranging to his left to field a ground ball for the second out, but was removed for pinch-hitter Luis Matos when his spot in the lineup came up to lead off the top of the second.

As for whether or not Flores will require a stint on the injured list, Melvin said, “We’ll see how he’s feeling tomorrow.”