One month ago the Oakland Athletics were sitting on top of the baseball world. The A’s owned a record of 72-44 which was the best in Major League Baseball and they appeared to be a lock for the postseason. But in a matter of a month things have changed drastically. The Athletics are 9-20 in their last 29 games and the team that has been in first place in the American League West for the majority of the season is now in second place and they’re nine games behind the Los Angeles Angels. The A’s are currently holding onto the top wild card spot in the AL, but even that is tentative as they are only mere percentage points ahead of the Detroit Tigers and two games ahead of the Seattle Mariners.
Jon Lester
Oakland had been cruising along, but in a surprise move just prior to the MLB trade deadline, A’s general manager Billy Beane acquired starting pitcher Jon Lester and utility man Jonny Gomes from the Boston Red Sox. In exchange for Lester and Gomes, Beane sent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to the Red Sox. Cespedes was vital in the middle of the Athletics batting order has he had 17 home runs and 67 runs batted in to go along with him making his American League All-Star team this year. Cespedes’ arm was also stellar in the outfield as he dared runners to advance on him as he has a howitzer for an arm.
Beane gave up a valuable piece to his team for a player in Lester that is a rental. Lester is set to become an unrestricted free agent this winter and the small market A’s are not going to be able to afford his services. Beane has also tinkered with something that is extremely valuable in the world of sports which is team chemistry.
Since August 10, Oakland has only won two series and they are fading fast. In a key four-game series against the Angels at the end of August, the A’s were swept. The A’s followed this up by losing two of three games to the M’s while doing the same over the weekend against the lowly Houston Astros. The Athletics got their seven-game road trip started on the wrong foot last night when they lost in extra innings to the Chicago White Sox. In their last 13 games Oakland is 3-10 and they have only managed to score 40 runs which is not going to cut it. Offensively the Athletics are 12th in the AL in batting average at .247 which is not going to get it done either. This team lives and dies by the three-run homer as they are tied for fourth on the Junior Circuit in home runs with 139. But if players are not getting on base, the home run is not as powerful.
A’s outfielder and leadoff hitter Coco Crisp has a six-game hitting streak, but he has only scored two runs over that stretch. The onus is now on the heart of the A’s lineup that includes third baseman Josh Donaldson and first baseman Brandon Moss to bring Crisp home. But since the Athletics traded Cespedes no one has been able to replace his contributions in the Oakland lineup.
Pitching was expected to carry the Athletics to the postseason and ultimately to a World Series Championship this season which has not been the case lately. Starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija was acquired from the Chicago Cubs earlier this season, but he left his 2.83 earned run average in the Windy City. Since joining the A’s, Samardzija is 4-5 with a 3.41 earned run average. A’s manager Bob Melvin now enters the ninth inning and he doesn’t have the same assurance that he once did being that relief pitcher Sean Doolittle has been on the disabled list since August 24 with an oblique injury as he has 20 saves in 23 opportunities.
But if the A’s are going to get out of their rut, now is the time. 11 of Oakland’s final 17 games are against teams that currently have losing records including a game today against the White Sox whom they have struggled against and seven games against the Texas Rangers who are the worst team in Major League Baseball this season. With 17 games left in the regular season and an nine-game deficit in the AL West, Oakland is not going to catch the Angels for the division crown. But what Melvin and his bunch can do is get back to the timely hitting and effective starting pitching that made them so dominant for most of the year. The Athletics are staring at playing in the Wild Card Game which means that they’ll have their hands full. If the A’s face the Mariners then you can bet that they’ll face starting pitcher Felix Hernandez who is a candidate to win the AL Cy Young Award this season. The Tigers have knocked the Athletics out of the postseason the past two years and the thought of Oakland having to meet either starting pitcher David Price or Max Scherzer of Detroit in a one-game playoff is not promising for the green and gold. The Athletics must find a way to get back to being the rambunctious bunch of players that has captivated Northern California or they won’t have an October to remember.
Source: Baseball-reference.com
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