Wood, A's unable to match Guardians' tempo

OAKLAND -- Alex Wood embraced his first career Opening Day start as an opportunity to set the tone for a rebuilding A’s club that hopes to take a big step forward in 2024. It was a chance for the 33-year-old left-hander to lead his new young pitching staff by example.

Things couldn’t have started much better. Wood opened up by making quick work of the first three hitters in the Guardians’ lineup, retiring Steven Kwan, José Ramírez and Ramón Laureano on nine pitches.

That first inning -- which ended less than five minutes after first pitch -- was a demonstration of why the A’s targeted Wood as a free agent this offseason. At his best, he works fast, throws a ton of strikes and generates quick outs. It was a tone-setting inning, but also his only clean frame of the night.

After the first, Wood pitched with traffic on the bases in each inning that followed in Thursday’s 8-0 loss to the Guardians at the Coliseum. The fourth inning was when it unraveled, as Cleveland loaded the bases on Tyler Freeman’s hit-by-pitch and plated five runs on three consecutive hits, with Brayan Rocchio delivering the knockout blow to Wood on a two-run double down the left-field line.

“Tough night for Woody,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “He fell behind early, which when you have to come back in the zone with the fastball, it’s a little challenging. He handled the top of the lineup pretty well. … He’ll get back after it.”

Wood kept Cleveland’s Nos. 1-4 hitters in check, holding Kwan, Ramírez, Laureano and Josh Naylor to 1-for-8 against him. Instead, it was the bottom half of the order that stung Wood. Most of the contact was also relatively weak. Of the 18 balls hit in play against him, the average exit velocity was just 91.1 mph.

“That’s the way it goes sometimes,” said Wood, who allowed six runs on seven hits and one walk with three strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings. “Sometimes those balls are hit right at guys and it’s an easy, quick inning. Other times, they go down the line for an infield knock that scores two runs. It was frustrating, for sure. But it’s a different feeling than when you go out there and you feel like your stuff is not good and you're grinding through it. I thought my stuff was pretty good overall.”

It was going to require a herculean effort from Wood for the A’s to even have a chance on Thursday night with how Shane Bieber performed on the other side. Cleveland’s ace shut the A’s down through six innings with 11 strikeouts on just 83 pitches.

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Once Bieber departed with a six-run lead, the A’s were held hitless over the final three innings. They set a franchise record for strikeouts in a game on Opening Day with 13, and JJ Bleday’s double in the sixth was their only extra-base hit of the night.

“We didn’t have an answer for Bieber tonight,” Kotsay said. “That [outing] was pretty good. We were swinging at the right pitches. But outside of JJ, he pretty much dominated us tonight, up and down the lineup. He has that ability. There’s a reason he won the Cy Young in ’20.”

For all the optimism the A’s generated this spring about feeling like an improved ballclub, Thursday felt a lot like many nights in 2023, when they lost 112 games: The inability from the starter to pitch deep into the game; the offense unable to get much going; the lone positive being a bullpen that held the other team down in an already lopsided game.

It was also just one game, with another opportunity on Friday night (6:40 PT, free on MLB.TV) to come out and show why they believe 2024 will be different.

“It’s game one of 162,” Kotsay said. “It would have been great to come out tonight and get a win in front of these fans. … The energy was good. You’d love to play better. But tomorrow’s a new day, and we’ll turn the page.”