Elephant Rumblings: A’s magic number at 5 entering final week

A’s Coverage:

• A’s Farm: A’s In The AFL - September 18-22 Update...
• Kroner: After past failures, A’s focused on securing home field for wild-card game... ($)
• Woo: The A’s are barreling toward the playoffs as underdogs, which is just the way they like it... ($$$)
• Zimmerman: Oakland A’s postseason tickets go on sale Wednesday...
• Poindexter: A’s week in review - Still in the driver’s seat for a wild-card spot despite week-ending loss... ($$$)

Best of AN:

• Iversen: Liam Hendriks, Marcus Semien, Bob Melvin honored with recent awards...
• Hall: Oakland A’s fan confidence keeps rising for starting rotation...

MLB News:

• Worthy: Ned Yost, manager of Royals’ 2015 World Series championship team, will retire...
• Bell: Infielder Jose Ramírez (hamate) expected to return for Tribe on Tuesday...
• Zolecki: Star Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto to undergo MRI on sore right knee...
• Weaver: TA30 - In the final MLB staff power rankings of season, a new team claims the top spot and we say some farewells... ($$$)

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Rosenthal: A stunning, tear-filled conclusion for Team Israel, with inspiration and history... ($$$)
• Jaffe: Domingo Germán Won’t Pitch in the Postseason, but Baseball’s DV Loophole Needs to Be Closed...
• Edwards: The Cardinals Lay Waste to the Cubs’ 2019 Season...
• McCullough: You may never see another manager like Edgar Frederick Yost III... ($$$)

Today in Baseball History:

• 1931 — Lefty Grove wins his 31st, beating the Red Sox, 9 - 4, his 11th straight win over the Red Sox stretching back to May 26, 1930. Since July 25th of that year, Grove’s record is 46-4, the best 50-decision streak in the century.
• 2014 — Twins pitcher Phil Hughes sets a record for the best K/W ratio in history in his final start of the year. He walks none and strikes out 5 over 8 innings in a 2-1 win over the Diamondbacks to finish with 186 Ks and only 16 free passes. His ratio of 11.63 tops the previous record of 11.00 set by Bret Saberhagen in 1994. However, a 66-minute rain delay in the top of the 9th proves literally costly as he ends the season with 209 2/3 innings pitched; he would have earned an additional $500,000 bonus for reaching 210 innings.

Best of Twitter:

• Insane...

• I guess Mookie Betts borrowed Ramon Laureano’s arm for the off day...

• Jomboy knows what’s up...