I will get the bad news over with first: the A’s lost a game today. Along with everyone else in the Cactus League, the A’s were not able to beat the Kansas City Royals. The Royals scored four runs in the first inning, which turned out enough to defeat the A’s, who only score two runs over nine innings. The final score of the game was 8-2.

Bartolo Colon did not impress in his second spring outing. He allowed seven hits and five runs over only two innings. He threw forty-eight pitches, thirty-two for strikes, did not walk a batter and struck out two. In two appearances this spring he has allowed twelve hits and eight runs over four innings while walking none and striking out six. I still think it’s entirely too early to be in any sort of panic mode with these players, but he has definitely not been enjoyable to watch so far.  Right-handed pitcher, Evan Scribner, also pitched in today’s game and went one inning while allowing two hits, no runs or walks and struck out one. Travis Blackley also pitched two innings; he did not allow a hit or a walk and struck out one. James Simmons was the only other pitcher to allow runs in today’s game, he pitched one inning and allowed four hits and three runs.

The offense wasn’t really there today, as the team only combined for two runs on nine hits and two walks. Grant Green was the only true stand-out player of the game, going 2-4 with two doubles.

• Daric Barton started at first base in this game and went 0-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Chris Young started in center field today and went 0-4. He is now 4-16 this spring with no walks and four strikeouts.
• Josh Donaldson played third and went 0-3 with a walk.
• Hiro Nakajima collected another hit today, going 1-3 with a double and strikeout. He is 4-17 with 9 strikeouts this spring.
• Michael Choice played right field and went 1-4 with a strikeout.
• Shane Peterson was in left field and went 2-4 with a strikeout.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, today was the team’s first split-squad, so along with the bad news comes some good news: they also won today. The team beat Team Italy, in their first exhibition game this spring, by a final score of 4-3.

Brett Anderson was the starting pitcher in this game and he had a much more successful outing than Colon, going three innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out three.  Right-handed pitcher, Fernando Rodriguez, pitched one inning and allowed one hit (a solo home run), one run, walked none and struck out one.

The team, as a whole, collect twelve hits, four runs and two walks, but went only went 2-10 with runners in scoring position. Coco Crisp had a big day for the team, going 3-3 with a walk and two runs scored.

• Jed Lowrie was the starting shortstop in this game and went 2-4 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI.
• Josh Reddick was the designated hitter and went 0-3 with an RBI.
• Yoenis Cespedes started in left and went 2-2 with two RBI.
• Seth Smith was in right field and went 1-4 with a strikeout.
• Derek Norris was the starting catcher and went 0-3 with a strikeout.

The team has a day off tomorrow. I swear this time, they really do. Thursday the team will be facing the Seattle Mariners and Tommy Milone will be making his second start of the spring.