USA TODAY International Edition
Taking care of business at hand
Beat Rangers now and AL West title likely will follow
OAKLAND There will be no re- enactment of 2012 and all of its marvelous wackiness in the American League West this season.
The schedule makers made sure of that when they decided to have the Oakland Athletics meet the Texas Rangers twice in the first two weeks of September, then not at all the rest of the way.
That lends added importance to the remaining encounters of the only two contenders in the division, with the other three clubs each trailing by at least 15 games.
Oakland’s 4- 2 victory Monday — with closer Grant Balfour admittedly running on fumes but escaping a ninth- inning jam against the top of Texas’ lineup — provided the first head- to- head glimpse of what figures to be a final month full of tense baseball and scoreboard watching in the majors’ tightest race.
By winning their fourth in a row and seventh of eight, the A’s erased what was a three- game deficit Thursday and tied the Rangers atop the AL West.
“We know we have a lot of work left the next two days and the rest of the season,” winning pitcher Dan Straily said. “But for a few minutes here it’s nice to sit back and say we’re back on top.”
The victory also served as an example of how the A’s have remained in contention even as the Rangers were setting a team record with 20 August wins.
With Yoenis Cespedes still trying to shake off second- year blues and fellow outfielder Josh Reddick back on the disabled list, leadoff hitter Coco Crisp struck the decisive blow.
Crisp’s two- run homer in the fifth inning, his career- high 17th of the season, broke a 2- 2 tie. It was the third game in a row in which Crisp homered and his seventh in his last 12 games.
Crisp left the game with a bruised shin after fouling a pitch off his leg in the sixth, but the injury did not appear serious.
“He’s the table- setter. He eats the food, too,” lefty Brett Anderson said. “He’s done it all lately. He’s our catalyst, and we feed off him.”
The A’s also feed off their solid pitching. They warmed up for the key series by going 7- 3 in a tough 10- game stretch against teams with winning records, including a weekend sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, whom they limited to five total runs.
Coming into Monday, Oakland pitchers were allowing the lowest onbase percentage (. 300) and secondlowest batting average (. 244) in the AL. So even as the Rangers gained seven games in the standings by going an AL- best 23- 8 between July 29 and Monday, the A’s lurked.
It’s a different scenario from last season, when the A’s trailed the Rangers by five games with nine days left. They won eight of their final nine, five of them against Texas, including a memorable closing sweep to clinch the division crown on the last day.
“Last year was pretty magical the way it worked out for us there at the end,” Straily said. “This year is going to be something different. If we take care of business in the five games we have left with them, then again we’ll control our own fate.”