Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
They got the winning streak up to 13 games before it ended like a thud in the finale in Baltimore. Leading up to that they had won the first 2 games, and had a sweep of the Twins where I believe they were facing a late game 10-7 deficit before they tied it up to force extra innings and were still down 12-10 in the 10th with 2 outs before back to back Twins errors lead to a 13-12 walk off win. The Rangers won 2 of 3 in Anaheim against the Angels before getting swept in Chicago by the White Sox, Angels lost 3 of 4 in Houston, Houston had gotten swept 2 games in Colorado before the Angels came in, and the Mariners split 6 games this week; split 2 at home vs. the World Champs Dodgers and then split a 4 game series in Boston. Oakland leads the division with the Mariners (13-9) a game back, Angels are 3 back at 10-10, Houston 3.5 back at 10-11, and the Rangers bring up the rear 5 back at 9-13.
They’ll continue their east coast road trip with a 4 game set at the AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays before heading home to play a 3 game series with the Orioles at the weekend. Mariners will play 4 in Houston to begin the week before ending the week at home for 3 with the Angels, Astros will end the week with 3 in Tampa, Angels will start the week in Texas with 3 against the Angels, and the Rangers will end the week hosting a 4 game series with the Red Sox.
Split 4 games with the Rays in St. Petersburg which really could’ve gone any way; the Rays outscored the A’s by 1 in the series, with 3 of the 4 games 1 run games with the final game a lopsided 2 run affair, so I guess a 2 game split is the fair result. They then went home and lost the first 2 games to Baltimore before winning the finale on Saturday to salvage a split in the 6 game season series. In other divisional action from this past week, Angels won 2 of 3 in Texas and then lost 2 of 3 in Seattle, Rangers ended the weekend winning 3 of 4 against the Red Sox, the Mariners started the week losing 3 of 4 in Houston, and the Astros ended the week winning 2 of 3 in Houston. A’s are still in first, Mariners are 1 back at 16-13, Houston 15-13 is 1.5 back, Angels are 2.5 back at an even 13-13 and the Rangers are 4 back at 13-16.
A’s will be entirely at home this week against the AL East. Toronto comes in for 4 games starting on Monday evening and then the Rays visit the coliseum next weekend to conclude the season series on Friday. Rangers have 4 in Minnesota followed by 3 in Arlington against the Mariners, Mariners start the week with 3 at home against Baltimore, Houston plays 3 in New York beginning on Tuesday followed by 3 at home against the Jays, while the Angels play the Rays for 4 games at the Big A, followed by the Freeway series in Anaheim with the Dodgers coming into Anaheim for 3 starting on Friday.
Split 4 home games against the Blue Jays, before winning 2 of 3 against the Rays. Angels lost all 4 games at home to the Rays to start the week, and DFA’d Albert Pujols before rebounding to win 2 of 3 against the Dodgers, the Rangers won 3 of 4 in Minnesota against the Twins before winning 2 of 3 at home to the Mariners, Mariners started the week losing 2 of 3 at home to the Orioles including Orioles pitcher John Means no hitter on Wednesday, and the Astros lost 2 of 3 in the Bronx, NY to the Bronx Bombers, and went home to win 2 of 3 against the Blue Jays. A's are in first, Astros are 18-16 and 2 back, Mariners are 2.5 back at 18-17, Texas is 3 back at 18 even, and the now Pujols-less Angels are 4.5 back at 15-18.
A’s have 6 games on the road this week. Following an off day Monday, they’ll be in Boston for 3 games beginning on Tuesday, and then end the week with 3 games in Minneapolis against the Twins. Rangers have 2 games in San Francisco beginning on Monday and following an off day Wednesday they’ll head to Houston for 4 games, the Astros start the week with 3 games in in Houston against the Angels, the Angels end the week with 3 games in Boston, and the Mariners have 2 games in LA against the Dodgers starting on Tuesday, and then head home to play 4 games with Cleveland starting on Tuesday.
The Astros just lost 4 of 7 games to the Royals in the last 9 days, and the A's actually lost a game and a half in the standings in that time frame. The Yankees winners of 12 straight come in for 4 over the weekend, though the last time they played out in Oakland (2019) the A's swept them in 3 games. Gonna be difficult to sweep 4 games, but I'll take a 4 game split.
Welp, the tear down is almost official as Sean Manaea was dealt to the Padres over the weekend so this is now Frankie Montas' club as Manaea's departure joins Matt Olson (Braves), Matt Chapman (Blue Jays) and Chris Bassit (Mets), Mark Canha (Mets) and mid season arrival Starling Marte (Mets as well) along with the manager Bob Melvin to the Padres.
Best Case scenario: This is clearly a rebuilding year, but hopefully some of the prospects they acquired in the deals can gain some MLB experience and put up some good numbers. Aside from the AL heavyweights (Blue Jays, White Sox) everyone else in the AL is mediocre to average, they manage 75 wins, and still on the fringes of the playoffs come September 1.
Worst case scenario: This team is even worse then it looks on paper and all the tweener AL teams improve including the Tigers who added Austin Meadows this evening, and the A's suffer their first 100 loss season since 1979 when they finished 108 losses.
My prediction: Not to much to see here. They won't be around in the division race at the end of the season, and the 4 AL East teams by virtue of getting 19 games each against Baltimore will guarantee they won't be in the Wildcard race, even with the extra teams at the end of the season. They off load some more players during the season, and after playing pretty well for the first 70 games or so, the bottom falls out in the second half, but they do enough in the first 80 games to avoid 100 losses; 5th place finish in the AL West; 67-95.
First game is Friday in Philly: Frankie Montas (13-9, 3.37 in '21) starts for the A's while Aaron Nola (9-9, 4.63) starts for the Phillies with game time slated for 3:05.
Kyle Schwarber had a leadoff home run in the 1st, his AB as a free agent coming over from the Red Sox as a FA to put the Phillies in front to stay 1-0. Rhys Hoskins lead off the Phillies second with a single, and Jean Segura would reach second on an error, but he was left there as Bryston Stott ended the inning with a strikeout. Schwarber walked with 1 out in the 3rd, advanced to 3rd on a J.T. Realmuto single, scored on a Bryce Harper double, Realmuto & Harper scored on a Hoskins single with Hoskins advancing to second on the throw home, and Hoskins scored on a Didi Gregorius single to put the Fightins' up 5-0 after 3, but Chad Pinder would get 1 back with a 2 out home run for the first A's run of the year. Hoskins & Segura walked sandwiched around an out in the 6th, a Stott single loaded the bases, and Hoskins scored on a Vierling sac fly to get the Pinder home run run back. Sean Murphy doubled leading off the 7th, advanced to 3rd on a Pinder single, and Seth Brown got the A's right back in the game with a 3 run homer following to make it a 6-4 game, Elvis Andrus reached on an error, following a strikeout Stephen Vogt grounded into a force out, Christian Pache and Tony Kemp followed with back to back singles to cut the Phils lead to 1 at 6-5, but Jed Lowrie ended the inning with a strikeout. Harper walked with 1 out in the bottom half and new addition Nick Castellanos doubled home Harper to give the Phils a 7-5 lead but was thrown at 3rd on the play so no more damage was done that inning. Segura and Stott had back to back 1 out doubles in the 8th, and following a ground out Schwarber would tally the final Phils & games final run with an RBI single before Realmuto walked and Harper flied out to end the 8th, and the A's went down 1-2-3 in the 9th. Frankie Montas (0-1) allowed 5 runs on 6 hits (1 homer) with 1 walk and 6 strikeouts in 5 innings. Aaron Nola (1-0) allowed 4 runs on 6 hits (2 home runs) with 0 walks and 7 strikeouts in 6 innings. Jeurys Familia (1st hold), Brad Hand (1st hold) and Seranthony Dominguez (1st hold) combined to allow 1 unearned run on 2 hits with 2 strikeouts in 2 innings of work.
Game 2 of the series is on Saturday. Kyle Gibson (10-9, 3.71 with the Rangers & Phillies last year) starts for the home team while the A's hand the ball to Cole Irvin (10-15, 4.24) making his return to Philly. Game time slated for 4:05.
With 2 outs in the 1st Cole Irvin hit Bryce Harper with a pitch (never good. These 2 out HBP’s always come back to haunt you) and that’s exactly what happened here as Nick Castellanos followed with a 2 run homer, Rhys Hoskins doubled but Jean Segura grounded out. Alec Boehm had a 1 out double in the 2nd, but a fly out and a ground out kept the deficit at 2-0. Segura singled with 1 out in the 4th, 2 batters later Boehm singled, but Matt Vierling ended the inning with a strikeout. Hoskins and Segura had back-to-back home runs to start the 6th to make it 4-0. Elvis Andrus doubled with 1 out in the 8th, and 2 batters later the A’s would get on the board with a RBI single from Stephen Piscotty. Tony Kemp walked to start the 9th, a passed ball and an error moved Kemp to 3rd, and he scored on a single by Jed Lowrie. Kyle Gibson (1-0) allowed 2 hits with 10 strikeouts in 7 innings, and Corey Knebel (1st save) allowed 1 unearned run on 1 hit with a walk and a strikeout in 1 inning. Irvin (0-1) allowed 4 runs on 7 hits (3 home runs) with 1 walk (1 hit batter) with 4 strikeouts in 5.1.
The series finale is on Sunday. Zach Eflin (4-7, 4.17) starts for the Phillies while the A’s will give the ball to Daulton Jefferies (1-0, 3.60) with first pitch from Eflin scheduled for 1:05.
Austin Allen walked to start the 3rd, Christian Pache and Tony Kemp each followed with singles to load the bases, but Elvis Andrus hit into a double play with Pache getting doubled off 2nd, and then Sean Murphy popped up to end the inning. Johan Camargo walked to start the bottom half, Garrett Stubbs reached on a bunt single, but just like the A’s in the top half the Phillies hurt themselves with a double play off the bat of Matt Vierling, and then Kyle Schwarber grounded out to end the inning. Andrus doubled with 1 out in the 6th, and scored on a Seth Brown single 2 batters later. Billy McKinney homered to lead off the 7th, Austin Allen followed with a single 2 batters later, following a strikeout Kemp singled Allen to 3rd but Andrus lined out to end the inning. Allen reached with 1 out in the 9th on a hit by pitch, a Pache double put runners on 2nd & 3rd, and Kemp had the final 2 RBI’s with a 2 run single before Jean Segura concluded the scoring with a lead off home run in the bottom half. Zach Eflin allowed 2 hits with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts in 4 innings, and Bailey Falter (0-1) allowed 2 runs on 4 hits (1 home run) with 2 strikeouts. Daulton Jeffries (1-0) had 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, and 2 hits in 5 scoreless innings, Sam Moll (1st hold), Domingo Acevado (1st hold), and Kirby Snead (1st hold) combined for 1 walk and 4 strikeouts in 3 hitless innings. In other action from the division: The Astros won 3 of 4 to open the season in Anaheim, the Rangers lost 2 of 3 in Toronto, and the Mariners have won 2 of the first 3 in Minnesota with the finale of that series on Monday evening. Houston is at 3-1, a half game up on the 2-1 Mariners, Oakland & Texas are 1.5 back, while the Angels are bringing up the rear at 2 back.
4 game series starts on Monday against the Rays which are the majors lone unbeaten after the opening weekend. Paul Blackburn (1-4, 5.87 last year) starts for the A’s, while the Rays give the ball to Luis Patino (5-3, 4.31 in ’21) with game time slated for around 6:40.
Won 3 of 4 in Tampa, and than lost 2 of 3 in Canada to the Jays, so overall a 5-5 road trip to begin things. Could've won 2 games in Toronto, and the lone game they lost in Tampa was via a Rays walk off, but considering where they were coming in, 5-5 is a win. I believe they are 2nd or 3rd in the majors in runs scored so far in the early going which is a surprise. They play the next 15 games in Northern California, 13 of the 15 at home (with the other 2 across the Bay at Oracle in San Francisco) beginning with 4 against the Orioles, so maybe they can keep the hot streak continuing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
17-12
