Oakland Athletics: Potential Achilles heel for their playoff run

The Oakland Athletics’ recent play has put them in quite a good position to make the postseason for the first time in three seasons.

The Oakland Athletics are without a doubt one of the most prominent storylines of the 2018 MLB season. The dramatic turn around, and potentially going from worst to first in the AL West is becoming a huge talking point around the Majors.

The A’s are tied for the best record post-All-Star break with the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals at 21-9. They are one game behind the Astros for first place in the AL West and four and a half games ahead of the Seattle Mariners for the second Wild Card spot.

Their chances of making the postseason are growing as we get closer to October. MLB.com has them up to an eighty-two percent chance of making the postseason. The fact that the A’s are looking more likely to make the postseason means this was a tremendously successful season.

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But Oakland fans might not want to settle for a Wild Card berth considering the home and away splits.

Record-wise the A’s home and away splits are nothing to worry about, Oakland is 39-26 at home and 37-25 on the road. But something worth looking into is their pitching splits.

At home the pitching staff is excellent. In 613 innings they have a 3.32 ERA and are holding opposing hitters to a .229 batting average.

On the road, however, those numbers take a dramatic shift in the negative direction. In 542 innings pitched on the road, the pitching staff is allowing a 4.27 ERA with a .243 batting average allowed and an OBP and SLG percentage that is 0.30 higher than at home.

The pitching splits are a little more concerning when looking into the starters. If the season ended today, Oakland would travel to New York to face off against the Yankees in a one game play-in.

The fact that the A’s pitching staff doesn’t have a bona fide ace allows Bob Melvin to take his pick of any of the starters to start that Wild Card game.

So let’s dive into the numbers.

Candidate number one: Trevor Cahill is spectacular at home with a 0.85 ERA and .156 batting average against, on the road not so much. Cahill has a 6.62 ERA with a .276 batting average against away from the Coliseum.

Candidate number two: Brett Anderson is also much better at home with a 2.55 ERA and .207 batting average against. On the road, he owns a 4.06 ERA and is allowing a .291 batting average.

Edwin Jackson‘s splits are slightly less significant. He owns a 2.88 ERA and .205 batting average against at home and has a 3.07 ERA with a .227 batting average on the road.

Sean Manaea is the only pitcher in the rotation that has positive numbers pitching away from the Coliseum. He owns a 3.86 ERA an .214 batting average against at home and has a 3.50 ERA and .246 batting average against on the road.

Recently acquired Mike Fiers should also be included in this list. Unfortunately, he doesn’t qualify, because each of his three starts with the A’s have all been at home. In which, he has been very dominant with a 1.47 ERA and .172 batting average against. So it’s fair to say he gets an incomplete for this situation.

So what’s the point of all this?

The point is that Oakland’s pitching staff has significantly benefited from pitching in one of the best pitcher’s parks in the league. The fact that they struggle on the road and don’t have a bona fide number one starter are reasons to be concerned about when it comes to not only making the playoffs, but also making a deep run in October.

As mentioned above, making the playoffs would cap off what has been an amazing season. But, statistics show that if Oakland has hopes of making a deep run into October, they need to start the series at home.