Hold on to your hats hearts, folks; we still have 137 games left of this behavior. More than that, if we're lucky. What we know about our Oakland A's twenty-five contests in is that, even in victory, they seem to enjoy making things difficult for themselves. Their ability to lay eggs out of the (series) gate is as head-scratching as the resiliency they've shown when face-to-face with The Broom.
The A's have played seven sets of three or more games this season. They are 1-6 in series openers and 7-0 on getaway days. By the time you've scolded them for not building any momentum coming off a positive win, they are endearing you once more with yet another gut-check triumph.
Five times they have dropped the first two games of a series. In the three 3-game sets, they avoided the sweep all three times, and in the two 4-gamers, they bounced back to take the last two contests. It's plain weird, man.
Not to make too simple of a point but what we've seen is that the pitching is too good for the A's to fall into a prolonged losing slump, but their bats suck enough to keep them from running off anything resembling a true winning streak.
Hence, the 12-13 record. I mean, didn't this team flirt enough with .500 last year? {checks records} Yep, the A's were at the break-even mark a whopping 33 different times in 2010, and fittingly, that's exactly where they ended up. That's not flirting, that's a commitment. And it looks like she's back for more this year: the A's have been seen holding hands with .500 five times this season, and can make it six with a win tomorrow. But as we all know, that's not likely to happen, being the first game of the series.
In fact, if you want to see an A's victory, check back here on Sunday and Monday.
