Sunday was quite a nerve-wracking day for the Oakland Athletics. The A’s entered play in a collective funk, having lost the first three games of the four-game home set against the Baltimore Orioles and eight of their previous nine contests overall.To say that Sunday’s tilt was a must-win game could have been an overstatement—but nobody would exactly argue against that sentiment. A loss would have given the Athletics a 13-13 record—a dismal free fall from their 12-4 start. Instead, Oakland managed to pull out the victory, 9-8, in prototypical come-from-behind A’s fashion, salvaging a lone game in the series, but ...
Just one day after the Oakland A's lost to the Baltimore Orioles after leaving the bases loaded in a four-run defeat, the A's came back to deliver the late-game heroics that we all know and love.The A's got back to their winning ways and avoided a four-game sweep at home from the Orioles. It took the A's 10 innings to do it, but they salvaged the series.Per tradition, whenever the A's win a game with a walk-off, the man who wins the game is pied in the face by outfielder Josh Reddick. The A's won the game when Coco Crisp ...
On the day that the Oakland A's honored their 1973 World Champion team with a pregame ceremony, the A's had a chance to add to another legacy.In 2012, the A's led MLB with 15 walk-off wins (including one in the postseason) en route to winning the AL West division crown.On Saturday, the A's fell behind 7-3 as they went to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning. With the bases loaded and only one out, newcomer Jed Lowrie came to the plate. Lowrie watched the A's late-game heroics from afar in 2012 as a member of the Houston ...
The 2013 season has the potential to be one of the most exciting seasons in Oakland Athletics history since Billy Beane took over as general manager. Beane has led the A's since the 1998 season. The team has made playoffs six times in 15 years—a pretty impressive feat considering his budget. They've also won over 100 games twice. Oakland may not hit the centennial mark this season, but it'll still go down as one of the best in recent memory. First let's define "best." In this case, the A's don't have to simply win 104 games (a would-be record under ...
The road to success is always under construction. That’s what the Oakland Athletics found out this week during their visit up the East Coast—a road trip that resulted in five losses in six games at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox. It was a quaking wake-up call for an A’s team that began the road trip as the American League’s hottest team, sitting atop the West division and maintaining the league’s most productive offense. All of a sudden, Bam!, the A’s take a few punches to the gut, and now they’re a ball club ...
The Oakland A's stopped the bleeding caused by a four-game losing streak by hammering the Boston Red Sox 13-0 at Fenway Park in a rain-shortened seven inning game.Bartolo Colon (3-0) pitched all seven shutout innings and gave up only three hits, as the A's improved to 13-8 on the young season.Former Red Sox Brandon Moss and Coco Crisp led the way for the A's, going a combined 5-for-8 while plating two runs each. Moss had three hits and Crisp had two, respectively. A's catcher John Jaso also had a day as well, going 3-for-4 and knocking in two runs of ...
In spite of a four-game losing streak, the A's are a good 12-8 through their first 20 games. Known even during the Moneyball days of the early 2000s as a slow-starting team, this start has been the team's best since 11-9 starts in 2002 and 2003.However, the clear caveat is the fact that six of those 12 victories have come against the woeful Houston Astros. But this early in the season, there is no need to apologize for the schedule. Instead, let's take a look at how Oakland's roster has performed in each major unit.First, there's the rotation. Surprisingly, this ...
The Oakland Athletics are the best team in the American League. At least, according to their 12-4 record they are. With an MLB-best 96 runs scored, they’ve proven to be quite difficult to beat this young season. Or that it’s certainly hard to contain them for very long.Still, some might look at Oakland’s record with caution, considering the division-champion A’s have played—and beat—the Houston Astros six times already. Remember, this is an Astros squad that lost over 100 games in both 2012 and 2011, so the matchup appears to be a bit skewed in Oakland’s favor.But, in sports, anything can ...
According to ESPN.com's weekly Major League Baseball power rankings, the Atlanta Braves and the Oakland Athletics are the two top teams at this early point in the 2013 season. So who is the better team, and who will continue to excel as the season goes on?The Braves are currently hitting and pitching just as good, if not better, than any team in baseball. Led by the offense of outfielder Justin Upton, catcher Evan Gattis, infielder Chris Johnson and infielder Juan Francisco, the Braves are currently ranked fourth in Major League Baseball in slugging (.458), 10th in runs (68), 16th in batting average (.254) and 14th in ...
Though only through 16 games of the 2013 season, the Oakland A's have stormed out to their best start since 1990 (12-4). That team ended up advancing to the World Series.This year's A's has taken advantage of playing the Houston Astros six times, winning all six by a margin of 45-19. One of the axioms to being a great team is to beat the teams you are supposed to. So far, so good. That said, there are more than just wins against a bottom feeder that have solidified the A's as a top-tier team. As a matter of fact, a couple ...