Fatrolf’s Sunday Sketches: Rookie Pie Edition

This team is not going to sit back comfy and settle for just a wild card slot. The Oakland A’s keep increasing the space between us and Seattle, while Houston only lurks a tantalizing five games away. Can we catch them? Why not?

We have to bring up the sad stuff and mention that Daniel Gossett became the fourth A’s player just this year to undergo Tommy John surgery. (Joining Kendall Graveman, Jharel Cotton and A.J. Puk) Hope all the best to the whole group of them; it’s never fun seeing a talented group of young guys have to try and come back from such a rough surgery.

OK now it’s happy time! In the past few months, there have been so many good moments to talk about, it’s been hard to pick one to lead with. This week, Ramon Laureano has stolen my heart (and likely yours, too!). Go ahead, watch this video and don’t get all teary-eyed. I dare you.

Okay, now that we’re all choking up all over again, I’ll recap the events of Friday for those of you who were off doing something less important than watching the game. Ramón Laureano just turned 24 a couple weeks ago. He was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and got his MLB debut with the A’s this Friday. The game spilled into a 13-inning 0-0 tie, until Ramón came through with his first hit of his major league career, first RBI of his major league career ... his first walk-off and shaving cream pie of his major league career!

Elated is an understatement to describe how Ramón and his new fanbase felt that night.

He’s a little nifty in the outfield, too! Whoooosh! (featuring Banjo Man!)

After suffering a dismal sweep at the hands of the Rockies, we bounced back and took down the Jays three games to none. Today, Cahill is on the hill for the final game of the series against Detroit, where the A’s lead 2-0.

As of the start of today, here’s where things stand:

• AL West: 5 games behind Houston, 2.5 games ahead of Seattle
• Wildcard: 3.5 games behind the Yankees

In the last 10 games, the A’s are 7-3. Houston is 5-5 and the Yankees are 4-6.

Also, for a bit of fun, this updated payroll list on spotrac.com reminds us that the A’s are 28th in the league, while the Mariners are 10th, Astros are 9th and the Yankees are 6th.

The other (aka most) exciting thing that happened (as Alex Hall pointed out, complete credit goes to him on this idea) is that we got the matchup of the century in the Detroit series, finally: Martini vs Goodrum.

And perhaps just as important are these hats that Ray, Glen and Dallas were rocking. An industrious A’s fan made them himself and brought this magic moment to life.

Not to mention, Khrush smashed his 30th homer of the season on Saturday! Yay!