Josh Donaldson
The Oakland A’s currently sit on top of the AL Wild Card standings by half a game. The Kansas City Royals are hot on the Athletics heals and the Seattle Mariners are also not far behind – only 1.5 games back. With the American League Wild Card race heating up and the Oakland A’s playing so poorly, many are worried that they will not be able to claim an AL Wild Card spot at all.
With only seven games left in the regular season, the Oakland A’s need to win a large majority of these these last few games if they want to make it to the playoffs. Unfortunately, it is against two teams that have already swept the Athletics in the past month – the Los Angeles Angels and the Texas Rangers.
When the Oakland A’s played the Angels back in late August, the A’s pitching staff was great and the games were low scoring. However, the offense could just not produce the runs the Oakland A’s needed to win. With another series against the Angels starting tomorrow, the Athletics need to redeem themselves with at least one win.
Even though the Texas Rangers are the worst team in baseball this year, the Oakland A’s were swept by them just last week. This time, it was not only the lack of offensive production, but also the Athletics were sloppy defensively. The Oakland A’s have been playing so poorly that no win is predictable even when they are playing the team with the worst MLB record.
As the season winds down, the Royals will be playing one team that is above .500 and another one that is below. There is a good chance that the Royals will win most of the games they play during these final two series thus earning themselves a Wild Card spot. If the Athletics continue too play poorly, it would not be surprising to see the Royals atop the Wild Card leader board at the end of the season instead of the Oakland A’s.
Like the Oakland A’s, the Mariners will also be taking on the Angels and then the Toronto Blue Jays. These games will be a little tougher for the Mariners to win. If the Athletics can earn some Ws during their last two series while the Mariners lose a few games, then the Oakland A’s should be able to make it to the Wild Card game.
The Oakland A’s recently won two out of three games against the Philadelphia Phillies with a huge walk off homerun from Josh Donaldson during the last game. Hopefully this will inspire some offensive production for the next week and a half until the end of the season. The Athletics need to start grinding out some runs and tightening up their defense if they want to make the Wild Card game.
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This article Oakland A’s: Will the A’s earn a Wild Card spot? appeared first on isportsweb by Sam Riley