A’s Want to Revisit Spring in Fall Classic : Oakland Won 8 of 9 Exhibition Contests Against Giants This Year

Do spring training games mean anything? The Oakland Athletics sure hope so.

The A’s won eight of nine exhibition meetings with San Francisco last spring and outscored the Giants 65-32, averaging 7.2 runs to the Giants’ 3.6.

Still, it should be noted that the Chicago Cubs had the worst record of any team in spring training at 9-23.

The Athletics and the Giants played a Bay Bridge Series in the last three games of the exhibition season and Oakland swept.

Starting Saturday night, the Giants and the A’s will play another Bay Bridge Series, this time for the world championship.

Oakland center fielder Dave Henderson had a particularly easy time with San Francisco pitching last spring. Henderson was 12-for-23 (.522) with eight RBIs and two homers.

“If we know anybody the best, it’s probably the Giants, because we follow them and play them so often in spring training,” said reliever Dennis Eckersley, who allowed one run and four hits in five innings against the Giants.

“People aren’t the same as they are in spring training,” Eckersley said. “But if there’s any team in the National League we know, it’s the Giants.”

During the spring, the A’s held Will Clark to seven hits in 29 at-bats, but Kevin Mitchell was 12-for-23 (.522) with three homers and five RBIs.

“I don’t want anybody to think that they’re just a team of Clark and Mitchell just like we’re not a team of McGwire and Canseco,” said Dave Stewart, who will start Game 1 for the A’s.

McGwire also had a big spring against the Giants, going 10-for-27 with four home runs and nine RBIs. Canseco missed most of the spring with a wrist injury.

The Giants will start right-hander Scott Garrelts in Game 1, and he had a rough time in the spring.

In 11 innings against Oakland, Garrelts allowed 14 hits and 10 runs. Rick Reuschel, who will probably start Game 2 for the Giants, made one spring appearance against the A’s and allowed eight hits and five runs in 4 1-3 innings.

“We won a lot of those games late,” Oakland Manager Tony La Russa said. “I don’t think it was a real good indication of us being eight-out-of-nine better. I think we are very evenly matched.”