by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s beat the Seattle Mariners today at the Oakland Coliseum. It’s really something to see a shift in attitude and play in just one day. The A’s acquired Adam Dunn in a trade with the White Sox yesterday

and all he did was hit a home run in his first at bat as an Athletic. The A’s, who played lousy ball in the four games in Anaheim, seemed to right the ship and played like the A’s that played so well for the first four months of the year. Jed Lowrie played in his first game since going on the DL and Geovany Soto, acquired in a trade with the Texas Rangers, drove in two with a single and actually threw out a runner trying to steal.All these were positives. The hitting came to life and the defense was crisp. A’s pitcher Jason Hammel picked up his second win as an Athletic and his performance was outstanding. He pitched well his last time out and seems to have gotten his game back on track. This gives the A’s five strong starters in the rotation.

The A’s have twenty-five games left to play. They have five more with Seattle as well as series with the Phillies , Astros , Rangers and Angels. The A’s have to get their mojo back and go on a tear if they are to win the division. The Angels are playing well and now have a 4 /12 game lead over the A’s but there is reason not to believe that the A’s can’t win the division and avoid the one game playoff with the second wild card team.

It was a big momentum shift for the A’s on Monday and let’s hope that they can continue to play well down the stretch. They are in the last month of play and the season is no longer a marathon. It’s now a sprint to the finish and the A’s won the division on the last day of play in 2012. Who is to say that can’t happen again this year?–

Jerry Feitelberg
jyf1938