Dilemma

SEA 1, OAK 8

So this is what happens when Zito gets some run support. Barry Zito pitches well and gets a win when he gets some run support, what a novel concept.

Back in May, while I was in the depths of despair from the horrible A's funk I wrote a post on my other blog, The Standing Ovation. At the end of my post I did a quick analysis of the predicament of the A's at that time, it went something like this:

I'm not going to do a sabermetric analysis on the A's. In the end it'd be a bunch of fancy looking numbers and abbreviated gobbledygook that can be boiled down to:

The A's aren't winning because they fail to drive in runners in scoring position. This is attributed to:

1. Lack of power hitting, in general.
   
2. Lack of extra base hits.

OBP and slaphitters don't win you games, they just put you in a position to win games. The A's need some consistent extrabase hitting. And they also need to get Kendall out of batting in the 3-hole.

Well in the month of June the A's are drawing walks and those walks are followed up by extra base hits (like Kielty's 2 doubles today and the hit parade on Sunday). The A's offense is finally showing some power. That coupled with quality starting pitching is recipe for winning A's baseball.

The A's were in last place a week ago when they started their most previous series with the Mariners, now they are in third. The A's have been a tear lately and in about two weeks they went from bottom feeders to knocking on second place, this brings me to my dilemma.

LAA 5, TEX 1 11 innings

Who do I want to lose in the other AL West matchup? If the Angels lose the series, the gap between the A's and the division leaders is narrower, but the A's would remain in third place. If the Rangers lose the series, the A's would have a very good chance for second place by the end of the week but they would not gain much (if any) ground against the Angels.

Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. The A's should focus on their goals in the following order and I shouldn't let my expectations get out of control:

1. get to a .500 record
2. get into second place
3. the Wild Card
4. the AL West

If the A's just accomplish their first two goals on the list, I would be a happy man.