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by Doug Thews.
Original Post: A's 5 Up with 9 to Go
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Things are looking a little brighter for the A's, as the Mariners lost (again) to the Texas Rangers putting the A's 5 up in the AL West (4 up in the wild card) with 9 games to play. 6 of the 9 are against the Mariners (with 3 against the same Rangers). The A's magic number is now 5 to clinch the division (any combination of A's wins and Mariners losses). It would take a complete collapse (knock on wood) for the A's not to make the playoffs for the 4th straight season.
Ok, now on to post-season speculation. Jose Guillen broke the hamate bone in his hand against the Rangers. This same injury kept Jose Canseco out 88 games in 1989. Jose says that he's going to try and gut through the pain to swing the bat, but we'll have to see. He can't do any more harm to the hand and the fix is surgery to remove the bone which will put him out 6 weeks (with no hope of returning for any post-season action).
On the pitching front, Billy Beane pretty much put the clamps on a potential return of Mark Mulder from his broken femur. Word has it that Mark was pushing to get back in time for maybe the ALCS or World Series. I think this is a good move, because we've got to have a healthy Mulder next year to contend. This would risk an injury like Bo Jackson's (an we all know what happened to him).
So, Hudson will probably start Game #1 of the ALDS, followed by Zito, and then Lilly. Kind of reminds me of the 2000 series (where Mulder was on the DL), except Hudson will be the #1 starter instead of Heredia (which probably cost us the series by not being able to throw Hudson at the Yanks twice and Mulder at least once). But, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Should the division race go to the last series, Hudson and Zito would pitch in Seattle, and it's possible Rich Harden or Ted Lilly could open the ALDS (let's hope not).
On the offensive front, the bats seem to have awaken. The traditional 2nd half surge is in full swing for Miggy & Chavez. Erubile Durazon has been hitting well over .350 for the past few weeks after being inserted into the #2 spot. Jermain Dye still has not regained his stroke, but he could get hot during the series.
As for defense, this club may be playing better defense than last year at this time. Mark Ellis is making spectacular plays at 2B, and the outfield is now better defensively with Chris Singleton. A lot will depend on whether Guillen can play at all during the post-season. His bat and defense can be a difference-maker.
So, it's on to the last week of the season. Hopefully, the A's can wrap up the division no later than the 2nd game against Texas (a swwep of Seattle this weekend is a little too ambitious), and the starters can get rest to setup for what looks like a series against either the Red Sox or Twins (gulp!).
Not being American, I'm at a bit of a loss on this one. What are we talking about here? American Football, baseball? Oh, I see there's a bat mentioned, so I guess it's probably baseball.
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