When I saw the A's play, and subsequently lose to, the Yankees back in April...I had no idea.
The game went into extras, and my thought was 'man, the Yankees have to be better than tying with a 4th place team', rather than 'shit, the A's might actually be good this year'.
And they are. Really, they truly are great this year. Chapman and Olsen are better than they were last year. Marcus Semien's actually hitting for average. Jed Lowrie's still a fantastic defender. There's a ton of fun little bench pieces like Mark Canha, Chad Pinder and Nick Martini, and there's a bunch of great relievers in Lou Trivino, Jeurys Familia, Yusmeiro Petit and the great, powerful closer Blake Treinen, who's gotta be really glad he's not still in Washington about now.
This team has gained momentum like no one else, and is power hitting its way past the Mariners (as they begin to slip further and further backwards), and clobbering the many decimated teams on their schedule, like Texas, Toronto and Detroit. They're five games behind the defending champion Houston Astros, who have won their last 2 after losing a bunch, and are losing a smidge of momentum without Altuve or Correa. The A's are also closing on the Wild Card race, currently holding the second spot, and looking to play the Yankees if the season ended today. Also, if the season ended today, they'd win, no matter who was on the mound. The A's have the momentum the Yankees wish they had. It's just a matter of who has it in September.
The A's are doing wonderfully, and need to keep all of this going. Hopefully they can keep the Mariners down, and make a splash in the playoffs.
Coming Tonight: Shortstop for a still-hot-ish team, hoping not to be re-lapped by the Dodgers.
As a diehard A's fan... I've gotta admit... I'm kinda holding my breath... waiting for them to come down to Earth. But outside of being swept by Colorado two weekends ago... they've looked amazing and like the Red Sox... you can't count them out late in the game.
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