SAN FRANCISCO — Wearing Oakland green and gold and Giants orange and black, thousands of fans from both sides of the bay stood together to protest the Athletics‘ planned move to Las Vegas during San Francisco’s 2-1 victory Tuesday night.
Thousands of fans from both sides of the bay stood together, wearing Oakland green and gold and Giants orange and black, during San Francisco’s 2-1 victory Tuesday night to protest the Athletics’ planned move to Las Vegas.
Mike Yastrzemski hit a go-ahead double in the eighth after JJ Bleday tied it on a single in the top half of the inning against Tyler Rogers (4-4). Giants starter Alex Cobb struck out nine over six scoreless innings as the Giants took the Bay Bridge Series opener to snap a six-game losing streak.
The game drew a sellout crowd of 40,014 on a night furious A’s fans handed out black “SELL” T-shirts and “Unite The Bay” posters to their San Francisco counterparts to include Giants supporters in their efforts to keep the team from moving to Las Vegas as planned.
Fans for both sides chanted “Sell the team!” in the fifth inning as a message to A’s owner John Fisher, then more cheers of “Stay in Oakland!” followed. The chants came complete with horns being played from some fans in unison.
During the game, #selltheteam was trending on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Totally understand the sentiment in the bay and totally understand the sentiment in the ballpark tonight,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said.
Casey Schmitt hit a fifth-inning sacrifice fly as San Francisco opened a season-long nine-game homestand seeking to get back on track from a six-game losing streak during a season-long 11-game road trip in which the Giants won the first five contests.
Cobb allowed three hits to save the bullpen as the Giants played a 12th straight day after the All-Star break. After Rogers struck out two for the victory, Camilo Doval finished for his 31st save.
He gave up Seth Brown‘s leadoff double in the second then struck out the next three hitters. The right-hander’s 1.80 ERA against Oakland is his lowest against any opponent with a minimum of five starts. He hadn’t faced the A’s since May 29, 2021, with the Angels.
Tayler Scott struck out two in the first setting up for Ken Waldichuk as the A’s used an opener for the 12th time.
Left-hander Hogan Harris (2-4, 6.11 ERA) is set to pitch Wednesday night for Oakland, while the Giants were yet to announce a starter as the series continues.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.