The Oakland A’s Win the AL West!

(Photo credit to @newballpark)

Unless you live under a rock you are already well aware that the Oakland A’s pulled out the miracle comeback to sweep the Rangers, win the AL West, and avoid the one game play-in tomorrow (Friday).  Look at that cover photo and the crowd from Tuesday night?  Awesome!  The reward for all of this is a trip to Detroit to play the first two games on the road as a 2 seed.  Would someone in MLB please impeach Bud Selig?  

The sweep was completed yesterday in typical, relaxing fashion.  By relaxing, I mean going down 5-1, playing terrible defense, and then scoring 11 unanswered runs.  By relaxing, I also mean having the end of the A’s bullpen – Doolittle, Cook, and Balfour – pitching in their 4^th, 4^th, and 5^th games in a row respectively.  Needless to say, the day was filled with a lot of anxiety and a lot of celebrating.  It was also nice to see a packed house at the Coliseum.  There have been plenty of articles written about the A’s, their comeback, the success, and everything with it.  I found this article to be one of the better ones if you are interested in more material for your bathroom break. 

The A’s are now on their way to Detroit for a best of 5 series and have yet to release their playoff roster or pitching rotation.  As others have suggested, I would be surprised if it wasn’t Parker.  From there, I would love to see Anderson return but the A’s aren’t leaking anything.  The schedule for this series couldn’t be worse for me personally.  Saturday and Sunday games aside, the remaining games are Tuesday through Thursday and during a business trip.  The weekday games are in Oakland and better be late starts.  Do you hear me Selig?!

Game	Matchup	Day	Date	Time ET
Gm 1	OAK @ DET	Sat	Oct. 6	6:00 PM
Gm 2	OAK @ DET	Sun	Oct. 7	TBD
Gm 3	DET @ OAK	Tue	Oct. 9	TBD
Gm 4*	DET @ OAK	Wed	Oct. 10	TBD
Gm 5*	DET @ OAK	Thu	Oct. 11	TBD

The A’s and Tigers met in mid-September with the Tigers taking two of three.  To be honest, I hope the locker room forgets that series because it was a pretty abysmal showing in the two losses.  Over the course of the season, the Tigers won four of seven total head to head match-ups, so this is a pretty even series heading in.  The A’s bullpen will have a few days of much needed rest and we’ll see who the team decides to put on the playoff roster and who they omit.  Putting the lack of playoff experience aside, this has been too good of a run to end anytime soon; Prediction time: A’s in 4! 

Unfortunately, with all of the good comes some sad news from the A’s clubhouse.  Early this morning I saw the news that Pat Neshek and his wife lost their baby less than 24 hours after birth.  I can’t even imagine what the family is dealing with.  My condolences to the entire Neshek family and hope for the best in the days and weeks to come. 

Let’s go Oakland!