Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
It took six pitchers, 10 innings and a sacrifice fly by a .042-hitting shortstop in the bottom of the ninth, but on Wednesday afternoon, it finally happened: the Oakland A’s won a game.
Mitch Moreland lined a walk-off single to centerfield to give Oakland a 4–3 win over the Dodgers. As pitcher Jesús Luzardo put it, the team “just got tired of getting our ass kicked.”
In storming back to beat Los Angeles, the A’s improved their 2021 record to 1-6 and avoided making history with the first 0-7 start in the 121-year history of the franchise.