This has been a tremendous season for the A's and their fans. ESPN predicted the A's would be the 29th best team in baseball w/their preseason power poll and here we are in the thick of a pennant race with 15 to play.

I've watched w/amazement as the A's have persevered the loss of Colon (which I thought would be devastating), the loss of McCarthy (which was downright scary) and now the A's may be w/o Anderson for the all important stretch run as well.

Every time I expect the A's to turn into a pumpkin, they manage to string together some wins.

This home stretch is brutal. The tough schedule coupled with the loss of the A's top 3 pitchers provides a good excuse for the A's to tumble out of the playoffs.

Even with the struggles during this road trip so far, I still expect this resilient bunch of overachievers to rebound and pull out some tough wins against teams that have superior talent and payrolls. I've always felt Coco Crisp is the catalyst for this team, and once he's in the line-up, I suspect the A's will start scoring some runs. I also feel that Jonny Gomes is an important glue guy, and I'd like to see him in the line-up more (even against RHPs), because he has a knack for driving in runs and the A's just seem better with him in there as opposed to Seth Smith (despite today's HR).

Even if the A's don't pull out today's game, I still don't think it's time to panic. This team seems to perform best w/their backs against the wall.

Let's go Oakland!