Sears caps off standout opening series for A's rotation

SEATTLE – Opening the 2025 season by splitting a series on the road against an American League West foe, especially one that swept them over the final three games of 2024, would have been a solid enough statement for the Athletics.

That’s why, as frustrating as it was to miss out on starting a season with a record 3-1 for the first time since 2020, the A’s took the positives from a four-game split with the Mariners following Sunday’s 2-1 loss at T-Mobile Park.

“We had a chance to win all four games,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “First night, tough loss. Last two games, we played well and came out on top. Today, one at-bat changed the game.”

The A’s were essentially an inning and a pitch away from a four-game sweep. Thursday’s season opener was undone by a one-run lead squandered by José Leclerc, who surrendered a pair of backbreaking eighth-inning home runs.

On Sunday, starter JP Sears was masterful outside of one sixth-inning slider left over the zone that Julio Rodríguez hammered for a two-run blast, flipping a one-run A’s lead to a one-run deficit.

“He threw the ball really well outside of the one pitch to J-Rod,” Kotsay said of Sears. “Tough loss for him. The result doesn’t show how well he threw the ball today.”

The starting rotation has been on a run of excellence to begin the season. From Luis Severino's six scoreless innings on Opening Day to Sears’ 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball on Sunday, A’s starters have combined for just three earned runs on 14 hits with 26 strikeouts across 23 2/3 innings.

• Severino opens eyes in A's debut with 2-foot sweeper

“It’s contagious,” Sears said. “You go out there and you want to do what the guys before you did, or top that. We’ve got a good group of starters that bounce off each other. We’re each different, but we can help each other out.”

Despite allowing the most runs of any starter yet, you could argue Sears’ outing on Sunday was the best of the bunch. He was dotting his pitches throughout and consistently getting ahead in counts with first-pitch strikes. Even after the go-ahead homer by Rodríguez, Sears went right back to pounding the zone. His other four hits allowed were singles, he did not issue a walk and he finished with seven strikeouts.

Sears worked diligently this spring to improve the quality of his sweeper, and also added a slider that allows him to contest both sides of the plate against lefties and righties. On Sunday, 78 of his 91 total pitches were either a fastball, slider or sweeper, and those three offerings combined to generate all 11 of his whiffs.

“I felt like I had pretty good command of the strike zone all day,” Sears said. “I threw a lot of good sweepers for a first strike to get ahead and used my fastball better later in the game. … I was just going with what was working today.”

There is a Bryan Woo problem for the A’s that remains tough to crack. Outside of a solo shot by Tyler Soderstrom, who has now homered in three of the A’s first four games and carries an 11-game hitting streak against the Mariners, Woo silenced the offense with six innings of one-run ball.

Through seven starts against the A’s, Woo now carries a 0.72 ERA in 37 2/3 innings.

“He’s the same guy,” Kotsay said of Woo. “We’ve struggled hitting the fastball against him. He’s effective with mixing the two fastballs. We have our challenges in front of us with him and trying to figure him out.”

That challenge will wait until at least May, when these two division rivals meet again for a three-game series. For now, the A’s head to West Sacramento for a highly anticipated first series at their new temporary home of Sutter Health Park, which kicks off Monday against the Cubs.

“Overall, [this series] showed we’ve made a lot of improvements,” Kotsay said. “We got swept here at the end of last season. To come get a split on the road for opening weekend, it’s a good result. Not a great result. But we’ll walk away and look forward to Opening Day tomorrow in Sac.”