The A’s Season Comes to an End

My silence and lack of writing over the past week during the ALDS against the Tigers was more or less due to a whirlwind personal schedule and a desire to not sound like a whining homer.  Overall, while ignoring the final outcome, I thought the series was filled with good baseball and a ton of exciting moments.  No one ran the gamut of emotional ups and downs more than Coco Crisp of course. 

Game 1 started off with a bang, literally, as Coco led off the game with a HR.  Parker pitched good enough to win, but the A’s could not do anything after the HR against Verlander – who I’ve grown to hate in one calendar week. 

Game 2 was the crushing defeat that the A’s couldn’t stand to make.  While Coco became the goat of the game, I don’t think that is necessarily fair.  The rest of the lineup left way too many runners on base and each of our “big three” from the bullpen had a rocky inning of relief work to give up runs.  This game was for the taking and it should have been won.

After game 2, my thoughts were already on the feasibility of beating Verlander in game 5.  However, I didn’t realize how much excitement would be coming over the next few days.  In game 3, Brett Anderson returned to the mound to pitch an absolute gem, with the A’s taking it 2-0 to force a game 4.  Game 4 was absolutely amazing.  In the words of Glen Kuiper, this was “un-be-lievable!!”  I was traveling for work and believe I woke up half the floor at the hotel when this game ended.  It was the perfect personification of the A’s season, walking off in the 9^th inning after doing virtually nothing for 3+ hours. 

Going into game 5, I could only think of one thing – how were the A’s bats going to come to life against Verlander.  In two words, they didn’t.  There were so many bad at bats and strike outs, that it isn’t even worth calling one or two players out on it (not to mention a wildly exaggerated strike zone).  However, when you lose 6-0, you can’t blame the strike zone.  Oddly enough, I actually prefer losing in this manner vs. a game that comes down to the end.  By the bottom of the 9^th inning, I was already in a positive-angle frame of mind and thinking about what a great season it was. 

To that end, let’s not forget what the A’s accomplished this season and the amount of fun that it was, for both the players and the fans.  We had the “Bernie Lean”, the pie celebrations, a collection of rookie pitchers playing their hearts out, and a lineup that had a flair for the dramatic.  It was a great run for the team who wildly overachieved vs. expectations. 

Beane has already stated that he wants to keep this roster together.  There are a few small decisions to make based on this past season’s roster (Gomes, Drew, etc.).  I’ll be putting together some thoughts on the offseason this coming week, but take a look at the new poll on the right hand side and let me know what you think the priority should be for this team.  

For now, let’s remember what a great year it was for the 2012 AL West Champions, Oakland A’s!!  Let’s go Oakland!   

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!   

Tigers Series Wrap-up and Yankees Preview

Earlier today the A’s saved face and avoided the sweep against the Tigers, putting up late insurance runs to seal the deal as the team gets ready to head to NY for a big three game series against the Yankees. 

The first two games against the Tigers were an unmitigated disaster and that may be understating it.  Game 1 was an embarrassment with the A’s losing 12-2.  The only time it felt even remotely good was in the top of the 1^st when the A’s had a 1-0 lead.  That lead was quickly given up in the bottom half of the inning and the deficit grew in just about every inning thereafter, with the Tigers scoring in six of the eight innings they came to the plate.  Despite the score being closer, game 2 was actually worse.  The A’s have lost Brett Anderson to an oblique injury and Melvin is saying he may or may not be available for the postseason.  So that’s awesome. 

In the 3rd inning of yesterday’s game, Anderson looked awful fielding a bunt and then fell to the ground on a subsequent pitch.  He exited stage left immediately thereafter and the hopes of beating Verlander quickly fell apart.  To be honest, yesterday’s lineup card against Verlander was a bit more than puzzling and looked like we were throwing in the towel early and waiting for today’s game.  Coco remains out with conjunctivitis (pink eye) and Weeks still couldn’t find his way into the lineup.  To make matters worse, Barton returned to the starting lineup in place of Carter because Melvin wanted left handed batters in the lineup.  Hopefully, that is the last time we see that experiment, even though Barton did have a nice game at the plate. 

After today’s victory, there was a little rookie hazing in the locker room apparently:

Casey Pratt ‏@CaseyPrattCSN

The #Athletics rookies are wearing green collegiate wrestler uniforms complete with ear guards. Lookin like Rick Steiner.

Thankfully, the pictures online have been limited.  The A’s are off to NY to play the Yankees and here are the pitching matchups:

Friday, 7pm (US EST) – Parker (11-8) vs. Sabathia (13-6)

Saturday, 1pm – Blackley (5-3) vs. Nova (12-7)

Sunday, 1pm – Griffin (6-1) vs. Kuroda (14-10)

Hopefully, the A’s can take two out of three here in NY.  The teams have had two series thus far this season, with the A’s suffering a three game sweep at home in late May, but returned the favor in July by sweeping the Yankees in a four game series in Oakland.  If the A’s can pull off two victories, they’ll own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Yankees.  I’ll go out on a limb and say that the A’s will do this, with victories tomorrow from Parker and Sunday from Griffin.  It will be interesting to see how Griffin responds coming off of his first loss of the season.  If this picture means anything, I think we are OK.

Tomorrow’s game will include a game day diary with the distinct pleasure of having to listen to the Yankees announcers for 3-4 hours.  If you don’t already, you’ll completely understand after reading the diary. 

Below you’ll see the up to the minute standings, before tonight’s games take place.  The A’s are currently tied with Baltimore for the top wild card spot and 3.5 games behind Texas for the division. 

Let’s go Oakland!