Fatrolf’s Sunday Sketches: Only One Game To Clinch! Edition

This may have been the most exciting week of Oakland A’s baseball this season. A 10-0 trounce of the Angels (aka the Anderson comeback game we wanted to see) seemed incredible enough, until the next day when the A’s put up 21 against Anaheim. Friday night ended in an extra-inning walk off, last night was capped off by another walk-off on a bases loaded wild pitch against Minnesota.

While we may have moved exactly nowhere in the standings since my last update, yesterday’s win has brought the A’s magic number to one! Hopefully we didn’t use up all our runs this past week.

Since last Sunday, the A’s have scored 52 runs and hit nine dingers — a third of which belong to Khrush. Houston and New York, however, have put up 34 runs each.

Sean Manaea had his surgery, which went better than expected, says Melvin. He won’t be back soon, by any stretch, but the A’s are hopeful Manaea will be ready for pitching action come around this time next year. Nothing definite, but a ray of light at the end of the tunnel we’re more than happy to see.

Andrew Triggs will have surgery on the 26th while he continues his long trek back to the starting rotation as well.

In the meantime, the bullpen has been getting lots of extra work and it’s been ... off and on. Hendriks has been rocking in his designated first inning slot and some of the other guys are taking charge of this situation. It’s been an interesting experiment in a time of need, to say the least.

With minor league baseball done for the season, the A’s say goodbye to their affiliation with AAA Nashville, starting up a contract with Las Vegas 51’s that will at least run through 2020. This is a good move for the A’s on many levels.

First, it cuts down on travel time for players jumping up and down from AAA to the Majors. The baseball season is a long one, and the mileage players rack up — by air, land, sea, etc — takes a toll mentally and physically on a guy, so anything to reduce that is a huge relief for players. Second, the 51’s will be getting a brand new 10,000 seat stadium next season, just in time for the A’s to take it over. This means brand new facilities and state-of-the-art equipment for our budding stars. Third, closer proximity is better for the fanbase as well. Having a minor league team within traveling distance makes fans feel more immersed in a real team they can interact with, rather than a vague idea that the team exists over 2,200 miles away. It may not be right out your back door, but it’s an improvement.

Khrush has been busy this week. In the last seven days, he’s hit three homers to take his season total up to 45. Albert Pujols never made it over that 50 mark.

Watching a guy chase history is astonishing. Watching him do it for your own team is unbelievable. Just like everything else A’s, Khrush has had the most story-book road to his fame here, and we’re beyond happy to have him.

Unlike his rotation-mates, Trevor Cahill and his healthy arm will be returning to the mound today to wrap up the Minnesota series in what could be the clincher. The Yankees wrap up their own series against the struggling Orioles, who have not been looking so struggle-y against the Pinstripes these last couple games.

Seven games of baseball remain. One to clinch, but we have to go all out if we want a chance at overtaking New York or Houston and getting either the first WC slot or first place in our division, both of which have eluded us so far this season. Maybe the A’s are just biding their time, ready to pull off the take-down of the Goliaths in as exciting a fashion as they’ve liked to win their games this season. We’ll just have to wait and see.