Oakland A’s outfielder Josh Reddick has been splashed all over the news this weekend, including on the home page at MLB.com, and with good reason. Reddick went on a power binge this weekend in Toronto, homering five times in two games. But the focus on Reddick’s long-overdue home run surge has obscured the fact that the A’s have fallen hard in the AL West and coughed up a six-game lead in two weeks.
The Oakland A’s are atop the AL West, and coming into Saturday’s games, are tied with the Boston Red Sox for the best record in the American League overall. The A’s might not be the Cinderella story they were a year ago, when they outlasted the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels to win the division, but Oakland is still a team with a lot of no-names. So our MLB coverage takes a closer look at how Billy Beane’s team is still doing it in 2013.
The AL West is the focus of MLB this week, as the Rangers and Angels have split the first two games of their weekend series and will get the ESPN showcase on Sunday night. But let’s not overlook that the Oakland A’s are hanging around and sitting at 17-16 coming into Saturday’s games, 4 ½ back of Texas and 2 ½ ahead of LAA. The A’s have survived an 11-game East Coast road trip and fought their way to a 6-5 record and then split two against Detroit these past two games at home. When you hear of Oakland succeeding, you generally think pitching. But it’s the bats that are helping the A’s hang tough in the AL West right now.