It’s Official, the Oakland Athletics are Cursed
It’s 2015, and seeing as it’s an odd year, the San Francisco Giants are supposed to be the cursed baseball team in the Bay Area. But in the offseason, Billy Beane must have really rubbed a witch doctor the wrong way. The curse has shifted from AT&T Park to O.co Colisuem, and the Oakland Athletics‘ voodoo doll must be full of pins.
The hits just keep on coming for the Athletics, and not from their lineup. On Thursday, the A’s were shut out in the first game of a four-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays, but that loss wasn’t the biggest they’d suffered on the night.
Edward Mujica entered the game for the A’s in the seventh inning, making his fifth appearance for the team since being acquired on May 9th. After the Boston Red Sox designated Mujica for assignment, the A’s picked him up for cash considerations, and in a short time, he had established himself as a solid piece in a bullpen that was in desperate need of a solid piece.
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The former All-Star had thrown 4.2 shutout innings in his first four appearances, including a win on Monday, but entered to a bit of a sticky situation on Thursday. He replaced starter Jesse Chavez with no one out in the seventh, and a runner on first. He struck out Nick Franklin, the first batter he faced, on four pitches.
The next batter was Bobby Wilson, and 12 days after Mujica joined the team, the curse struck in the form of a line drive right back at him. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Wilson stung a liner right back where it came from, hitting Mujica in his right hand, fracturing the thumb on his throwing hand, and opening a gash that would require stitches to close.
Undeterred by the fracture and gushing blood, Mujica would, amazingly, complete the putout to first base, making the throw to first baseman Max Muncy. After the game, Muncy told San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser that the ball he received was “half covered in blood”.
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Maybe the team isn’t completely cursed, as there is optimism that Mujica won’t need surgery to repair the minor fracture. The swelling will need to subside before that determination can be fully made. He will be forced to go on the disabled list, but his time on the shelf should be minimal for the injury, if surgery isn’t required.
Mujica became the fourth Athletics’ player in less than two weeks to leave a game prematurely due to an injury. Ike Davis suffered a quad strain, and landed on the disabled list. Drew Pomeranz has a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder (his throwing shoulder), and is also on the disabled list.
Coco Crisp suffered a neck injury, and though he is not on the shelf yet, he will likely land there shortly. Slusser reported that Crisp received “disheartening news” about his injury, but details were not yet provided.
Jarrod Parker was also struck by this weird plague that is affecting the team. In a minor league rehab start, Parker suffered a fracture in the medial epicondyle area of the upper arm, and it was feared that he would need to undergo a third Tommy John sugery.
Parker dodged a major bullet, though, as his surgically-repaired UCL stayed anchored to the bone, and didn’t need to be reattached. The flexor tendon was the only thing to be reattached by Dr. James Andrews. In a long-running line of bad news for Parker, that is a slight, very slight, ray sunshine.
Something weird is going on in the Athletics’ clubhouse. The flu has been running rampant, the injury bug is having a feast on the players, and there doesn’t seem to be an answer. The injuries are only exacerbating the issues that the team is going through on the field.
Maybe there really is a curse, if you believe in that kind of thing. It probably wouldn’t hurt the team to go out and find an exorcist.
If it wasn’t for bad luck, the A’s would have no luck at all.