Oakland Athletics: Another Late-Season Surge

[OFFNY]

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Last year, the Athletics were sitting at 61-55 in the middle of August, 6 games out of first place.

They finished the season on 33-13 tear, culminating in a 3-game sweep of the Rangers to snare the A.L. West division by one game.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/2012-schedule-scores.shtml

This year, the Athletics were sitting in 2nd place at 71-56 three weeks ago. Since then, they have gone 13-5 and taken command of the A.L. West, while the Rangers continue to slump (they have lost 8 out of their last 10 games.)

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/2013-schedule-scores.shtml

This year, the Athletics were in better shape when they started their run and their capturing of 1st place in their division than they were in last year (they were 15 games over .500 at the start of their run this year, whereas they were only 6 games above .500 when it began last year.)

There is still plenty of baseball left to be played, and a 3-game lead with 17 games to go is far from insurmountable. However, the Rangers have the harder schedule (they have to play a series with the Rays, while the Athletics do not.) This weekend's 3-game set in Arlington is looming very large, ESPECIALLY for the Rangers.

[OFFNY]

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The Athletics barely held on in the series opener in Texas last night by a score of 9-8.

It was 9-2 after 7 innings, but the Rangers scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning before the Athletics stopped the bleeding, and eked out the win.

Will the Rangers (2-9 over their last 11 games) continue to flounder ???

(SEPTEMBER 14th)

OAKLAND ATHLETICS

Coco Crisp - CF

Josh Donaldson - 3B

Jed Lowrie - SS

Brandon Moss - LF

Yoenis Cespedes - DH

Daric Barton - 1B

Josh Reddick - RF

Stephen Vogt - C

Eric Sogard - 2B

Bartolo Colon - RHP (15-6, 2.85 ERA)

TEXAS RANGERS

Ian Kinsler - 2B

Elvis Andrus - SS

Alex Rios - RF

Adrian Beltre - 3B

A.J. Pierzynski - DH

Geovany Soto - C

Mitch Moreland - 1B

Craig Gentry - LF

Leonys Martin - CF

Yu Darvish - RHP (12-8, 2.84 ERA)

http://baseballpress.com/lineup.php

[OrangeJerseys]

Go A's.

[OFFNY]

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The Athletics completed the sweep of the Rangers in Texas.

They (the Athletics)are up by 6 and a -half games in the A.L. West.

They have also won 13 out of their last 16 games, and 16 out of their last 20.

Athletics Complete Sweep of Rangers

(By John Hickey)

http://www.insidebayarea.com/athletics/ci_24101523/oakland-complete-sweep-texas-rangers

[OFFNY]

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The Athletics have repeated as champions of the A.L. West.

Oakland A's are A.L. West Champions

(By John Hickey)

http://www.insidebayarea.com/athletics/ci_24152466/oakland-are-l-west-champions

[OFFNY]

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"SWEET SPOT" article.

With Another Division Title, Billy Beane is the Best G.M.

(By David Schoenfield )

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/40634/with-another-division-title-beane-is-best-gm

[OFFNY]

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96-66, a division title, and the # 2 seed in the American League playoffs.

[slakattack]

I gotta feeling that Bobby Melvin is going to have his boys playing deep into the ALCS this year...they are the hungriest bunch in the entire postseason.