On opening day, the Athletics took on Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels and hung on to win, 2-1, in front of a crowd of 26,805 fans in Oakland, Calif.
After a horrendous 2022 season in which the A’s posted a 60-102 record and averaged less than 10,000 fans per home game, the win against the Angels was a rare bright spot. But with a gutted roster, a decrepit stadium and team ownership that has been flirting with leaving the city for years, there was seemingly no reason for the victory to generate any optimism.