FanPost

An Unbelievable Run Documented

Tell me again all you sports commentators how tough it's going to be for the A's to jump over all those teams for the wild card. Here are the records since we lost the final two in Toronto:

A's:         12-2 (10 on road)

Yanks:     8-6 (11 on road)       -4
Angels:    7-7 (4 on road)        -5
Twins:     7-8 (8 on road)         -5 1/2
Red Sox:  6-8 (7 on road)         -6
Orioles:   5-8 (10 on road)       -6 1/2
Jays:        5-8 (6 on road)         -6 1/2
Indians:   5-9 (3 on road)         -7
Rangers:  5-9 (4 on road)         -7

So, we played more on the road along with the Yankees; we played the toughest schedule along with the Yankees; and we made up this kind of ground. This has to be unheard of.

Consider that when we won twenty straight three years ago, we only gained 3 or 4 games on our closest pursuer. This time in an incredibly tough 14 game stretch we've gained from 4 to 7 games on the eight teams we're competing with. In part, this is because when they weren't beating each other or being beaten by us, they were losing to Tampa and KC and Seattle and Detroit and the White Sox. (Tampa, 7-3 since the break; KC, 6-5).

This is all unimaginable. And it has positioned the A's to be the favorite the rest of the way, given the schedule.

We've gone from just hoping we could compete, to finally winning, to starting to think we were in it, to reaching .500 in the first 35 games of this streak.

And then, blink, after the next 14 games, we find ourselves at the top.

Unbelievable.