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OAKLAND – The 20-For-20 Oakland A is now over, and the word to get out of this forced baseball race was "survival".
Well, more than that, really. They needed to stay even (more or less) with all the playoff contestants and they did, except for Seattle, where they won three games. In short, although they became a completely different pitcher corps, they played .600 baseball among a group of teams that have spent the last 20 days playing .598 baseball.
Mission accomplished, pretty much. They won their card for one day. That is, if you take the meta-view and you only care about the team's chances of doing the post-season.
But at that moment, their pitching rotation deteriorated due to injury (although you did not know it with the New York Yankees being tied down by Mike Fiers on Wednesday night, 8-2). Their line of business handled his business the way the Carolina Hurricanes do their first three days of training camp with new coach Rod Brind'amour (courtesy Emily Kaplan, ESPN):
DAY ONE:
7:00 am Physical / team tests
8:45 am Team training
10:45 Team Grind Practice
DAY TWO:
8:45 Practice Team Grind
10:45 Practice of the team
DAY THREE:
8:45 am Team training
10:45 Team Grind Practice
DAY FOUR:
8:45 Practice Team Grind
10:45 Practice of the team
So, yes, Brind'amour has named the two halves of his training camp team, Team Grind and Team Grit, the two virtues that have had the most success during these three weeks. The eight regulars caught up with the style points they could have lost by performing a slender rotation and an overloaded bullpen just to finish in 27th place. A bench that only two days ago had only three people.
In short, A's show shows the kind of roughness and grinding that Rod Brind'amour would find admirable. They beat a schedule that could have beaten them, and even if the only reward was some leeway from Seattle, that's all they really needed.
Yes, it would have been nice to stay closer to Houston (the Astros have won 12 out of 15 since they regained their health, so losing a game and a half is not shameful), and yes, close on the Yankees would have It was useful to have signed the 6-6 series, but the Yankees have won all the breakbreakers, which allows them to be four games better than Oakland at the moment. Boston and Cleveland do not matter for the purposes of this discussion, and Tampa looks like a more alive pursuer than Seattle.
But all in all, Oakland's collective fate is clearly in his hands, even as these hands continue to send baseballs to each other, a relief to the next (they averaged four pitch changes per game in the 20 games). after Brett Anderson returns next week). They did what was needed above all – they reinforced the growing notion that they belong to the upper echelon of this high-end American league.
So it will be a day off Thursday, where everyone will be able to relax, rescuer Shawn Kelley, banished from his family's cutlery drawer for the duration, and then back to work – three against Texas and days off before and after the trip on the Baltimore-Tampa road, then home to finish and become men in the sense of baseball.
And if they really apply, they could even play for the Carolina Hurricanes.
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