The Oakland A's have been on fire. They are now tied with the Angels for first place in the AL West at 65-48. Near the end of May the A's were 17-32. They made it to .500 on July 9th with a record of 43-43. Insert cliche here about why they "play all the games". The next day they made it over the .500 hump by completing a sweep of the White Sox, beating Garland, Buehrle and Garcia. They haven't looked back since. With Zito, Haren, Harden and Blanton in their rotation, a killer bullpen and still loads of prospects, Billy Beane has set them up for another run. They lack offense, which could be the downfall of their playoff hopes, but they have allowed the least hits, the least homers and have the lowest OPS allowed in the AL. They play the Angels 8 more times including today's game.
The Indians are making a serious run at the Wild Card. They are 62-52 and they scored 11 runs in the 9th inning the other night against the hapless Royals. Since the beginning of June they have gone 37-13. That was when Victor Martinez broke out of his 1st half funk and started crushing. Along with Peralta, Sizemore, Crisp and Hafner the Tribe has a formidable offense. Interesting that a young club like this would be only 27-27 at home and 35-25 on the road. The odds are against them to capture the wild card with the Yankees and either Oakland or the Angels in the race, but this is another young, talented team.
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