A’s clinch playoff spot, end four-year drought
SEATTLE — The word “destiny” is thrown around way too often in sports. But when trying to comprehend the story of the 2018 A’s, you can’t help using the word. How else to explain it? The A’s officially clinched a playoff spot Monday just as their game against the Mariners got underway after the Tampa Bay Rays were officially eliminated from contention following a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees, marking the A’s first trip to the playoffs since 2014.
It makes no sense that a team expected to finish around .500 if everything went its way is headed to the playoffs despite having had everything go against them.
Had things gone the A’s way, Kendall Graveman would be living up to his status as the No. 1 starter, Sean Manaea would be going strong as the No. 2 and Jharel Cotton would make three. Top pitching prospect AJ Puk might be here.
Instead, Graveman, Cotton, and Puk all went down with Tommy John surgery early in the year, while a torn labrum ended Manaea’s season last month. In fact, nobody from the starting rotation that came out of spring training is part of this current incarnation.
The A’s have used 14 starting pitchers this season, yet here they are, set to play in October thanks to castoffs such as Brett Anderson, Edwin Jackson, and Trevor Cahill. Signed off the MLB scrap heap to serve as duct tape to a starting rotation in shambles, Anderson and Jackson will finish the season with ERAs under 4.00 for the first time since 2015, Cahill for the first time since 2013.
That doesn’t happen. Teams don’t go through 14 starting pitchers. The Texas Rangers have used 15 and they’ll finish last in the AL West.
It makes no sense for a second baseman to have the greatest season of his career at age 34. But that’s what Jed Lowrie has done, earning his first All-Star selection, hitting 21 home runs after never hitting more than 16 in a season and approaching 100 RBIs after never having produced more than 75.
It didn’t make sense when the A’s went into Cleveland and Houston, two teams that will meet in the playoffs, and took five of seven games just before the All-Star break. Yet that was a clear signal to A’s GM David Forst that something special might be going on. He responded by making four trades for four pitchers — Jeurys Familia, Mike Fiers, Shawn Kelley and Fernando Rodney — in a span of 18 days.
“We knew going into that stretch, that was gonna give us a real good sense of where we were,” Forst said. “The guys played great and we felt like they deserved an opportunity to get some help.”
It makes no sense that the Oakland outfield found stability in a kid who was let go by the Houston Astros and a 28year-old rookie who toiled for seven years in the St. Louis organization without getting so much as a cup of coffee in the big leagues. But that’s the story of Nick Martini and 24year-old Ramon Laureano.