Max Muncy Goes Deep, Springs Shines, and A's Beat M's
Before the season began, we talked about the importance of the first series the Athletics would play against the Seattle Mariners. Not because they need to get off to a hot start, but because these first four games are coming against a team that the A's had gone just 17-47 against since 2021.
If the A's want to make some noise in the AL West in 2025, they're going to have to find a way to beat the Mariners.
While they dropped the opener, 4-2, they received a terrific start from Luis Severino. It was the bullpen that couldn't hold a slim lead in that one. On Friday, the A's and M's were locked in a scoreless tie after four innings, with just a hit between them.
Then the A's started slugging. With two down in the top of the fifth, Lawrence Butler doubled to the wall in center, his first hit of the season. Brent Rooker followed that up with a two-run shot to put the A's ahead, 2-0.
That would be all the cushion Jeffrey Springs would need in his A's debut. The lefty had his changeup working masterfully, with the off-speed offering generating 13 swings on 22 pitches, while Mariners bats whiffed on nine of those 13 (69%).
Springs would end up going six innings, giving up just three hits and one walk, while striking out nine. All three of those hits came in the bottom of the fifth, as Mitch Garver and Jorge Polanco singled to lead off the frame. Donovan Solano would strike out (on a changeup), and then Dylan Moore would single to center.
Garver decided to test the arm of JJ Bleday, and he found out that it's not okay to run on Bleday, getting nailed at home and keeping the game scoreless. Springs would get J.P. Crawford to line out to center, where Bleday made a nifty sliding catch.
Springs told reporters after the game that Bleday "saved the outing. Super excited to have [Bleday] running around in centerfield."
The lefty also said that his goal was to move the fastball around enough to keep the Seattle hitters off his soft stuff. Looks like that planned worked.
While Springs didn't need more than the two-run blast from Rooker, the A's bats just kept adding on, which is the sign of a good team. Bleday, Shea Langeliers, and Tyler Soderstrom would all add RBI hits, making it 5-0 A's in the seventh.
In the eighth, a bit of personal history was made for rookie Max Muncy, who collected his first MLB hit, a homer, off Tayler Saucedo. It left the bat at 108.7 and went a projected 430 feet, leaving no doubt about that first dinger.
Max Power!
— Athletics (@Athletics) March 29, 2025
First MLB hit ✔️
First MLB home run ✔️ pic.twitter.com/CAxFUVQvjr
Former Mariner Luis Urías, in his first at-bat with the A's in the top of the ninth as a pinch-hitter, capped off the A's scoring with a solo home run of his own. With Seattle, Urías hit just four home runs in 94 at-bats in 2024, and none of them came at T-Mobile Park. In fact, he went just 6-for-44 in Seattle last season, so this home run had to be huge for him turning the page after a down year.
Justin Sterner made his A's debut, walking the first two batters he faced in the seventh, before settling down and getting a nice defensive play from Muncy on a grounder to second. He decided to get the tougher out at second base, instead of the sure out at first, keeping the double play in order. Sterner would strike out Solano for the second out, before he was lifted.
With Seattle going to the bench for Luke Raley to face the righty, A's manager Mark Kotsay pulled his reliever for left-hander T.J. McFarland, who proceeded to strike Raley out on three pitches.
Mitch Spence would work the final two innings as Kotsay's "joker" in the bullpen, giving up a pair of hits and striking out two.
With it being so early in the season, using the long-man in that spot was interesting, since they could have given Rule 5 draftee Noah Murdock a soft landing spot for his MLB debut with a 6-0 lead in the eighth.
Yet, this could have been Kotsay planning for the rest of the series. As we saw with the Raley/McFarland matchup, the Mariners are a very matchup-based offense in some places. By using Spence, he keeps most of his bullpen fresh, and keeps lefty Hogan Harris available for Saturday night's game with right-hander Osvaldo Bido starting.
If Kotsay goes to Bido for five, then Harris for two, the Mariners may not have the right lineup in when it's time to face the high octane portion of the A's bullpen.
Of course, it all depends on how the game shakes out and where the lineup is when these changes are made, but this is certainly something the A's skipper could have been thinking through when deciding to use Spence.
The win overall was exactly the kind of showing the A's needed from this series, and in the first two games this season against a tough divisional foe, they have shown that they can hang. This team is already showing glimpses that they're a different club that they've been the past couple of seasons.
It also doesn't hurt that they've scored 11 total runs on one of the better pitching staffs in the game while also playing in the toughest ballpark to generate offense. The A's are showing a lot of little signs of being a potential contender early--but it's still very early.
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.