Once you win 2 of the first 3, settling for a series split seems unsatisfying even if you went in thinking a split would be acceptable. So the A’s may not have boarded the charter back to Sacramento filled with jublilation and high fives.
But what 2025’s opening series showed was far more positives than not and should leave fans very optimistic about the A’s chances to compete in the AL West. The backdrop to the series was that the Mariners had dominated the A’s the past several seasons and that they boasted one of the very best rotations in all of baseball.