A's return home to host Yankees at a (bad) record-breaking pace

Once and for all, the Oakland Ahtletics are returning home. After winning seven consecutive games at the start of June, the A's have gone on to lose 10 of their last 11 matchups through Sunday.

They will play again inside the Oakland Coliseum when they host the New York Yankees for the first of six games home games through next Sunday that will also feature the visiting Chicago White Sox.

Playing home, mind you, isn't really going to help these record-breaking A's. Oakland enters the series against the Yankees having a 9-29 home record to their 11-31 record on the road. That's a .237 winning percentage home, and a slightly better .262 away from Oakland.

The Athletics, which are expected to deploy former All-Star Paul Blackburn (0-0, 4.21 ERA) on Tuesday to face Yankees' ace Johny Brito (4-3, 4.89), exited last weekend looking at making (the wrong side of) history and boasting an MLB-worst 20-60 record through the first 80 games of the season.

To summarize in a few brief, understandable, historic points, these are the 2023 Oakland A's for you:

X) The A's are 40 games below .500 at 20-60. That's the ninth-worst record in MLB history through 80 games.

X) The A's have the worst start to a season (80 games into it) since the Tigers kicked off 2003 (that's 20 years ago, for you math wiz at home) with a paltry 19-61 record.

X) The A's are on pace to win 40.5 games this season (.250 winning percentage). If you're optimistic, they'll win 41. If you're not, they'll win 40. Only two teams have won fewer than 40 games in the past 123 years. Only three have won 40 or fewer. Only two teams have lost more than 115 games in the past 106 years. Only the 1962 Mets reached 120 losses.

X) The A's are 1-9 in their last 10 games. They are 8-12 in their last 20. They are 10-20 in their last 30. On and on it goes. There is no split (home/away, vs. RHP/LHP, etc...) in favor of the A's halfway through the season. Not a single one (unless you count their 1-0 record in games played in March...).

... ... (sigh) ... ...

We could keep doing this forever because this team is putting up (or not putting up) numbers on a steady basis and breaking records (for the bad) each passing day. But hey, it's not that we're here for that type of thing, are we?

See you on Wednesday with another recap, this one talking about your A's and the visitors from the Evil Empire. It's never too late to start another, even brief, winning streak, right? Right!?

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