Fatrolf’s Sunday Sketches: The Why Did the Red Sox Pick This Moment to Suck Edition

With everything stacked against them, the A’s rebounded this week. Big time. When we last saw our heroes, they were trapped in a precarious position after losing Manaea AND Anderson to injury within a few days of each other. They’d dropped two to Houston and Seattle and the first Wild Card spot was slipping further away.

If we’ve learned on thing this year, it’s that the A’s are pretty good at a lot of stuff, but at one thing in particular: Comebacks.

We ended up splitting with Seattle, then took two out of three from the Yankees. Two more from Texas so far, the A’s have been on fire this week. Unfortunately, so has Houston. It seems like our drive to get that first place spot has lit a fire under them again. That was all supposed to come to an end Friday when the Astros took a trip to visit the best team in baseball, the Boston Red Sox.

So far, the Red Sox have not come through and Houston is up 2-0 in the series. Bad time to actually lose, guys.

While the A’s have been fairly stagnant in the standings this week, it doesn’t reflect the awesome stuff (technical term) they’ve been doing.

Brett Anderson is close to recovery! He threw three simulated innings — 15 pitches each — and was feeling pretty good. If things continue to go so smoothly, he’ll be back in the rotation faster than was expected.

With holes still in the rotation, Bob Melvin is still keeping his most precious asset in his hip pocket.

Khrush belted another homer this week to bump the count up to 41 to increase his lead over JD Martinez. His PR is the 43 he hit last year.

You guys know how much I like talking about Ramón Laureano. I, in turn, know how much you guys like talking about Ramón Laureano. He’s been great. We know that. We’ve seen him throw a guy out from the center field wall. We’ve seen what he can do at the plate. We know he’s good, but how good is he really? On Friday’s game against Texas, Laureano cracked his first leadoff long ball of his career, a fly ball over left field. Six innings later, he hit another shot over the right field wall. Pretty cool, right? Oh, and by the way, this was his second two-homer effort in just 79 at bats as a pro baller.

Laureano has gotten to the multi-homer game mark in fewer attempts than anyone in Oakland history. Who’s he ahead of? Canseco did it in 42, McGwire did it in 43. Laureano did it in 29.

He got a fist-bump from Rickey Henderson for this.

Jed Lowrie was honored at a Stanford football game this weekend, and he really doesn’t look as out of place in a football uniform as one might expect. Another victory.

Chad Pinder was nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award this week, “bestowed annually to the player who best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field”, according to MLB.com. He and his fiancee, Taylor, have helped raise over $90,000 for the Oakland community, as well as working with the School of Imagination in Dublin.

The A’s also welcomed back RHP Aaron Brooks, who we originally got in a trade with Kansas City, alongside Sean Manaea. He was re-acquired for cash from Milwaukee. The last time Brooks played in the majors? With Oakland! Brooks will give our tired bullpen a rest while we wait for our starters to come off the DL and take some pressure off the short-inning guys. To make room on the roster, the A’s had to DFA LHP Danny Coulombe.

With Matt Olson’s late-inning effort to put the Green and Gold on top in last night’s game, the A’s have already taken the three-game series against Texas. Today, Trevor Cahill is ready to shoot for the sweep. Let’s just hope the Red Sox can get it together today and at least take one from Houston. That would be nice of them.