The Oakland Athletics have quite an impressive streak going. They currently have 11 straight months in which they have put up a winning record.
This month, the Athletics are currently at 14-11. They have 3 games left, 1 against the Tigers and 2 against the Angels. Should they lose all 3 of those, they will have a .500 month and the streak will be snapped.
Jesse Chavez will take the mound against the Tigers and will try and prevent that from happening. He will look to go deep into the game and clinch the 12th straight month with a winning record for the Oakland Athletics.
It has been a tough month for the Athletics. They started it off dropping 2 of 3 to the Boston Red Sox, then dropping 3 of 4 to the Seattle Mariners. They then went on to sweep the Washington Nationals and take 2 of 3 from the White Sox. They dropped the last game against the White Sox, snapping a 6 game win streak. They then had another 6 game win streak, sweeping the Cleveland Indians and taking 2 of 3 from the Rays.
The winning streaks quickly turned into a losing streak, where they lost 4 straight being swept by the Blue Jays along the way.
Now they seem to be rebounding, and look to be in good s to take the final game of this 4 game series against the Detroit Tigers.
The lineup will have to face Rick Porcello, who is 2-5 with a 4.50 ERA against the Oakland Athletics.
In his last start, he gave up 8 earned runs against the Texas Rangers, but has a 7-2 record, which shows he is still a great pitcher. The Athletics can’t allow him to settle in quickly. They need to make sure he has another bad outing by driving up his pitch count and continuing the success they have had against him, although that’s obvious.
It may not be that easy with the way the offense played on Wednesday, collecting only 2 hits through 8 innings. 3 hits in the 9th bailed them out and allowed them to walk off the field with a win.
Right now the offense seems to be getting better, but is still a bit inconsistent. A good showing against Porcello could finally get the wheels rolling for the offense yet again.