by Jerry Feitelberg

The season, A’s fans, has just thirteen games left to play.The A’s who have not been playing well since the big trade on July 31st have no chance of winning the AL West division. The division will be won by the Los Angeles Angels who have the best record in baseball(93-56). The A’s however can make the playoffs as either the first wildcard or the second wildcard. The A’s won the last two games played in Seattle and with Kansas City losing to Boston Sunday, have given themselves a little breathing room over the Royals who trail the A’s by 1.5 games for the top wildcard slot. The Royals have a game lead over Seattle for the second wildcard spot and Seattle is now 2.5 games behind the A’s and one game behind the Royals. The team with the top wildcard spot will host the one game playoff to decide which team advances to the AL Division Series.

The A’s, as mentioned above ,have thirteen games left to play. Nine of the games will be at home and the last four will be on the road at Texas. The A’s start the nine game home stand against the aforementioned Rangers. The Rangers have had a season of turmoil. Their pitching staff has been decimated by injury and they also lost Prince Fielder, who was their big off-season acquisition, to injury and he was lost for the year. Their manager, Ron Washington, has resigned for personal reasons.

Washington won two AL Pennants and had made the Rangers into a very good time during his tenure as manager.The A’s cannot take the Rangers lightly and the Rangers would love to knock the A’s out of the playoffs. A’s manager Bob Melvin has adjusted his pitching rotation so that Sonny Gray will pitch game three of this series and Gray will pitch again against Texas in the last game of the regular season. What this means is that Jon Lester will be pitching in the one game playoff for the A’s. Jon has a reputation as a big game pitcher and has two World Series rings to show for it. Also, Lester was named AL player of the week as he went 2-0 with an ERA of 1.29.

The pitching match ups for the Texas series will be Scott Kazmir (14-8,3.32) going against Nick Tepesch(4-10,4.47) on Tuesday. Wednesday’s pitchers will be Jeff Samardzija (4-5,3.41) against Derek Holland(1-0, 0.86). Holland was a regular starter for Texas but he missed almost all of the season due to injury but be can be one tough customer and the A’s know it. They know beating Holland will not be easy. The Thursday game will feature Sonny Gray (13-8,3.18) against Nick Martinez)3-11,4.93.)

The A’s then play three inter-league games with the NL East last place Philadelphia Phillies. The Philies are 69-80 for the year but they would love nothing better than to come here and beat the A’s and knock them out of the playoffs. The A’s then finish the home stand against the Angels who, by the time the three games series will be played, should have the clinched the division crown. The A’s the travel to Texas to play a four game series and finish the season.

The A’s have been on a roller coaster ride this season. They had the best record in baseball the first four months of the season but they stopped hitting in late July and have not played well the last six weeks. They have played a lot of one run games during that span and lost most of them as they could not buy a key hit or get anything going to turn the slide around. They took two out of three from Seattle over the weekend and they did not get beat by Felix Hernandez. Hernandez pitched well but the A’s won the game after his departure. Hopefully, they will not have to face him in the one game playoff. What the A’s need is for the team to step up their game. Do the little things that win games. Small ball if necessary,for sure. Good defense is a must. The A’s have been making costly errors during the downturn and that has to stop. Good pitching is a must. The starters must get their “A” game going and the bullpen has to do its job when called upon and lastly clutch hitting. If they can put all those ingredients together, they can go far in the playoffs. If not, it will be a long winter wondering about what might have been. It’s time for the fans to come out to the park and back the team with all the support and noise that they can provide and let’s hear them chant “let’s go Oakland.”