Happy Tuesday A’s fans!
Yesterday was a wild affair in our future home city. The Athletics’ kicked off their Las Vegas homestand with a contest against the Brewers and it was a wild one. The hitter-friendly ballpark lived up to its reputation as both teams combined for 34 hits, 29 runs, and 11 (!) home runs. Seven of those came off the bats of the home team. No lead in this ballpark is safe, no matter how large it is. If there’s a field where massive comebacks can and do happen, it’s this one. They were on the losing end last night but it was a barrage that was lots of fun regardless, and fans got their money’s worth with a four-hour, 14-minute game time.
The temperature at first pitch was a balmy 87 degrees, with the city hitting triple-digits earlier in the afternoon. A’s players, fans, and coaches will all need to get used to that because that’s going to become the new normal during the coming summers. The new ballpark is going to have a retractable roof and under-seat AC for the fans so it shouldn’t be miserable all the time. One can’t imagine them opening the roof during the middle of summer so how the ball flies in the stadium when the roof is closed will be a huge thing to watch when the park opens up. It’s hard to say exactly how the park will play on the field until we get some baseball on it, but all indications are that it’s going to be a hitter’s dream, a complete 180 flip compared to the Oakland Coliseum and its massive foul territory and marine layer.
Who else is excited to see what Round 2 looks like tonight? The A’s could certainly use an extended performance out of scheduled starter J.T. Ginn, and he may be the type of pitcher that can keep runs down in Las Vegas. As a groundball-focused pitcher Ginn will do his best to get his infield defense to work and keep the ball down and in the park. After using seven pitchers yesterday the team can’t really afford a short start from Ginn or else dip into the minor leagues for some fresh arms. Last night was just the first of six games in the future home so hopefully Mark Kotsay knows to do his best to keep his bullpen fresh for the rest of the series.
First pitch is at the same time tonight, folks. 7:05, and based off last night we may have another long evening ahead of us. Until then, have a great day everyone.
A’s Coverage:
MLB News and Interest:
Best of X:
Same Dallas, same:
Which will be better for hitters?
Not surprising considering he’s playing for the A’s:
Ha!
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