The Oakland Athletics will wrap up the month of May tonight when they face the Los Angeles Angels. Regardless of tonight’s results, the Oakland Athletics will finish the month with a winning record.
That’s 12 straight months with a winning record for Oakland now. Can they make it 13? Well let’s take a look at the month of June.
The Athletics kick off the month of June with the final game of their 3 game set with the LA Angels. After that, they take a 3 city road trip.
The first road trip starts in New York, continues on into Baltimore and ends in Anaheim. Each stop is a 3 game series.
In New York, I believe they will take 2 of 3. The Athletics have superior pitching, and they have an offense that plays in one of the most pitcher friendly parks in the majors. A lot of the fly balls and line drives they hit in the O.co can become homeruns when they play at the Yankee’s hitter friendly park.
In Baltimore, the Athletics will have more of a challenge. They were a tough team on the Athletics last season, and to take 2 of 3 from the Orioles will be no easy task. I think the Athletics will be able to do so, but they will be close games.
If the Athletics lose a series on this road trip, it will probably be in Anaheim. The Angels are playing really good baseball, and if they stay hot, the Athletics may finally end up losing one to the Angels. This is assuming that the Athletics win the current series they are playing right now.
After the road trip, they come home for a 10 game home stand, where they host the Yankees for 3, Rangers for 3, and Red Sox for 4.
The Yankees have been terrible in Oakland recently. Last season they were swept, and I believe the Athletics will be able to sweep the Yankees yet again. The Yankees have improved from last year, but so have the Athletics.
The Rangers have suffered a lot of injuries, and are still playing decent baseball, but not at to the level they were supposed to. They were supposed to be in 1st or close to 1st with all of the money being spent and the additions of Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo. The Athletics have overcome their injuries better than any other team, and will sweep the Rangers.
When the Red Sox come to town, the Athletics may have a hard time. The Red Sox are really inconsistent this season. They do really well in some games, but they had a 10 game losing streak as well. If they are playing good baseball, then I expect a split of the series. If they are in one of their slumps, then the Athletics take 3 of 4 in this series.
They then finish on the road, travelling back to New York, this time to face the Mets for 2 games. They end the month of June travelling to Miami for a 3 game set a against the Marlins, then 1 game in Detroit. The series in Detroit carries into July, but only 1 of those 3 games will be played in June.
I predict a sweep of the Mets, where they may run into their old players from last season, Bartolo Colon and Chris Young.
When they visit the Marlins, they will take 2 0f 3. When I saw this spot in schedule at the beginning of the season, I thought they would easily sweep the Marlins, but the Marlins are a drastically improves team. Taking 2 of 3 will not come easy for them.
I will say that the Athletics will drop their last game of June against the Detroit Tigers, simply because you can’t win them all and if the rest of the month goes well they may be due for a loss.
Overall, June looks like it may be a great month for the Athletics, a great way to rebound from a not so great May.