I must have seen the future because the title of the last GOG was "Ruin The Rangers", and the Athletics definitely just did that to any hopes that Texas has of making the playoffs. Of course, in my actual GOG entry I had Texas winning the series 2-1, so maybe claims of psychic ability should be taken with a grain of salt.

Starting today, the A's, with the worst home game attendance in the AL, will host the sorry Cleveland Indians (second worst home attendance in AL, 17 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central), in what is sure to be a crowd-pleasing four game series. September baseball can sometimes be full of tension and gut-wrenching ups and downs, but this series probably won't be that. So really it all comes down to the GOG race then!

Links

• Probable pitchers
• Indians stats

GOG #48 :: Exciting Pennant Races! (34 points possible)

Four game series vs Cleveland Indians -- September 17-20

UPDATE -- answers added below in bold

1. Series outcome [3 points] 4-0 Oakland!!
2. For people who are scratching their heads over how Fausto Carmona went from being awesome in 2007 to being horrible for the last two seasons, I give you the following three numbers -- 2.55, 5.22, 5.57. Those are his BB/9 rates for the last three seasons. The 2007 figure of 2.55 is pretty good but since then he his control has been unspeakably awful. Predict Carmona's IP/BB/ER against Oakland [2 points each] 5.2 IP, 1 BB, 8 ER
3. It seems like every fANpost that mentions Rajai Davis gets like a million comments, so I am definitely including him in this GOG. How many times on base for Raj? [3 points] 7 times on base
4. Justin Masterson was traded to Cleveland as part of the package for Victor Martinez and he has shown some troubling signs as a starter for the Indians (he was mostly pitching out of the bullpen for Boston). He is still doing a good job at getting ground balls and avoiding the home run (actually, he is doing a ridiculously good job at avoiding home runs, but some of that is definitely luck and small samples), but his strikeout rate has dropped and his walks are up into Carmona territory. Maybe he's a case of a sinker/slider guy who doesn't have enough variety in his repetoire to succeed as a starter, but the Indians will surely give him more of a chance to prove himself. How many Oakland hitters does Masterson walk in his game 1 start? [3 points] 4 BB for Masterson
5. How many starts for Landon Powell, at catcher or elsewhere? Does he hit a home run in the series? [3 points for the first question, +-1 for the second question] 1 start, no HR
6. Travis Hafner hasn't been able to stay healthy this season, but he has been a decent hitter when he plays (not like his monster years of 2004-2006, but also not like his below replacement performance last season). How many plate appearances for Pronk? [3 points] 13 PA for Hafner
7. September call-up Michael Brantley has a big job in trying to fill Sizemore's shoes. So far he is hitting .328, but with few walks and pretty much zero power. Predict his H/SB/CS for the series [2 points each] 6 H, 0 SB, 2 CS
8. The 2009 Cleveland bullpen is almost bad enough to make fans long for the days of Joe Borowski. Their relievers have a combined ERA that is third worst in the AL, ahead of only Kansas City and Baltimore (and if you go by FIP, then Cleveland is second worst in all MLB, ahead of the Nationals). How many runs to the A's score against this bullpen of horrors? [3 points] 3 ER off the Cleveland bullpen
9. Mortensen (1-2), Anderson (9-10), and Gonzalez(5-6) all have the opportunity to even their records at .500 with a win. Which of these three young starters manages to do it? [+1 for each right, -1 for each wrong] Mortensen and Anderson pick up wins, Gio does not

The series starts up at 7:05 pm, so post your entries...

Results

That was another nice series, eh?

Overall scoring statistics

• mean = 6.92857 points
• standard deviation = 4.15959 points
• mode = 8 or 10 points

via cfcp.uchicago.edu

Your Scores

I don't have a whole lot to say today, except congratulations easyraider and stranahanahan!