The Oakland Athletics have a chance at redemption.
This week the A’s get to face the Minnesota Twins for four games and a have a chance to pull their record to an even 15-15.
The Twins feature an offensive attack comparable to a middle-school pantsing. They are middle-of-the-pack in in terms of runs scored and near the bottom of major league teams in on-base percentage, weighted on-base average, and offensive wins above replacement.
Neither team features a top-10 pitching staff, but the A’s boast a starting rotation with the fourth best ERA in baseball, while the Twins starters have the tenth worst.
The matchup favors the A’s, who features a top-10 offense and one of the best rotations in baseball. So what could a series win mean for this team?
The A’s cannot catch the first place Houston Astros with a series sweep, but they can bring themselves closer while distancing themselves from the other competition in the division.
The A’s are a game back of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the loss column and are a game up on the Seattle mariners in the win column. The Angels and Mariners play each other this week while the Astros have to deal with the Texas Rangers.
The season is far from over and the division is far from won. They A’s can’t vault themselves into first this week, but a strong showing in Minnesota will go a long way towards that goal.
Series Keys:
- The Jesses must start strong — Jesse Hahn and Jesse Chavez pitch the first two games and face the erratic Phil Hughes and a rookie in Trevor May.
- Platoon advantage — The four starters the A’s will face are all right-handed. This means we’ll see a lot of Ike Davis, Stephen Vogt, and Josh Reddick. Vogt his two home runs in Texas yesterday and Reddick contributed one home run in each of the last two games. Reddick was named co-Player of the Week for his performance over the past seven days.
- Young bullpen — Dan Otero and Fernando Abad haven’t been their usual selves in 2015. The A’s called up young reliever Chad Smith yesterday and brought R.J. Alvarez up from triple-A on Saturday. We could be seeing plenty of that duo this week as Bob Melvin tries to straighten out the bullpen.