Climaxing an almost unbelievable comeback -- they were 13 games out of first place on the 1st of July -- the A’s are hosting the Rangers in a game that will decide the American League West.
A’s blow out Rangers, make all sorts of history
Is it that the A’s are only the third first-place team in major-league history to spend just one day in sole possession of first place?*
Is it that the A’s are just the fifth team in major-league history to finish in first place despite being, at some point in the season, at least 13 games out of first place?*
Read Article >Rangers open up 5-1 lead with two-out hits
Well, this isn’t as exciting as I’d hoped.
The Rangers scored a run in the third inning, with Adrian Beltre knocking in a run and tying the playoff to see who’d play the play-in for the playoffs, 1-1. After Nelson Cruz popped a ball into right that ended up being a force play at second, there were two outs and runners on first and third. The A’s had a chance to get out of the inning with minimal damage.
Read Article >Say, has anyone noticed how unexpected this is?
There will be a lot of A’s-related factoids that’ll come out of this if they win the division. They’ll be only the fifth team to come back from a deficit of 13 games or more -- the last one being the 1995 Mariners.
The one that gets me, though, is that at the end of June, the A’s were three games behind the Cleveland Indians. Forget that they were 13 games behind the Rangers -- they were behind a team that would eventually go on to lose 93 games.
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