OAKLAND, Calif.—Shane Bieber struck out 11 in six shutout innings, David Fry had three hits, and Stephen Vogt won his managerial debut as the Cleveland Guardians beat the Oakland Athletics 8–0 on Thursday night at the Oakland Coliseum.
Bieber, the 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner, made his fifth consecutive opening- day start and allowed just four hits.
“A lot of hard work on display, and I’m going to continue to keep my head down and do what I always do,” Bieber said. “We’ll see where we end up. But it was good to hit the ground running, both individually and as a team.”
Mr. Vogt spent six seasons over two stints as a player with the A’s before retiring in 2022. He was hired by Cleveland to replace Terry Francona after a year as a bullpen coach for the Seattle Mariners.
“It felt awesome,” Mr. Vogt said of getting his first win. “When you put up a crooked number early and Shane Bieber does what he does—it was nice to have one like that.”
The Guardians scored five times in the fourth inning to knock A’s starter Alex Wood out of the game and take a 6–0 lead.
With the bases loaded and one out, Andrés Giménez started the scoring with an RBI single. Austin Hedges hit an infield single that drove in two runs, and Brayan Rocchio followed with a two-run double.
Wood, in his 12th season but his first with Oakland, allowed six runs in 3 1/3 innings in his first opening-day start.
“I thought my stuff was pretty good overall and, over the course of the season, all those even out,” Wood said.
A’s Manager Mark Kotsay agreed that Wood was unlucky.
“He didn’t give up a ton of hard contact,” Mr. Kotsay said. “It was just unfortunate that the balls were hit down the line and in holes.”
The announced attendance at the A’s home opener was 13,522—about half of the crowd at last year’s home opener of 26,805. Many who bought tickets did not actually enter the stadium, with fan groups organizing a boycott in the parking lot to protest the team’s planned move to Las Vegas.
