Kyle Muller: "It Was the Best Day I've Ever Had on a Baseball Field"

When asked about Esteury Ruiz's diving catch in the top of the first that robbed Trout of extra bases, Muller couldn't hide his excitement. "Oh, that was great! I thought I had punched him out a pitch or two before that, and then he hit it pretty hard. I thought it was in the gap. But [Ruiz] has made a couple of plays like that for me. He's great out there."

Going toe-to-toe with Shohei Ohtani on the mound is no easy task, yet the A's have pulled out late-inning victories in their last two regular season games with Ohtani on the bump. The Angel starter has combined for 11 innings, given up just five hits, one run, walked four, and struck out 16 in those two starts. 

Muller said it was "awesome" to have this start against one of the best in baseball. "That's what you dream about. You get to face the number one and number two players in the world, back-to-back in the first inning. You can't write it up any better than that. I have a huge amount of respect for everything they've done. To be on the same field and competing against them is where I want to be. It's super cool that happened day one of the season."

Muller struck out Ohtani in the first inning, and postgame said he's never yelled after the first inning in a baseball game. "I was hyped."

The A's starter also gave credit to his housemate and batterymate, Shea Langeliers, who caught him on Thursday night. "That was huge. We went over the lineup last night and got on the same page. It's just super cool, we're both in the same spot in our career. We have kind of a similar amount of days in the Major Leagues, and so being able to share that experience with him--it's his first time doing it as well. During the anthem we were just talking like, 'We're the Opening Day battery, man. This is sick!' We had fun with it. I think we probably had the most fun out of anybody on the field tonight."

The A's put together some solid at-bats in the eighth inning, which was started with a single the other way off the bat of Ruiz. Kemp, facing left-hander Aaron Loup, doubled on a ball that bounced off the wall, which scored Ruiz and tied the game at one. 

After pinch-hitter Brent Rooker struck out, newcomer Aledmys Díaz singled to left, scoring Kemp from second, and giving the A's a 2-1 lead. Dany Jiménez came on in the ninth to close out the A's first win of 2023. 

The expectations for the A's aren't high this season, but they showed on Thursday night that they can compete at a high level, and even though there aren't many household names on the roster, there are guys on this team fighting to prove themselves at the big league level.