Oakland Athletics: What’s next after the sweep of the New York Yankees?

The Oakland Athletics are quietly one of the hottest teams in baseball and just handled business against one of the frontrunners. Are we still overlooking them?

The Coliseum proved to be a deathtrap for the first-place New York Yankees as they went down 3-0 to the hometown Oakland Athletics in the first series of a long road trip out West.

This is now the first four-game losing streak for the Yankees since early April and the A’s have now picked up momentum in a Wild Card race as August winds down.

Oakland starters got all three wins this series and held the Bombers to just five earned runs and two long balls as they stymied one of the best lineups in baseball.

The A’s now sit at 13-5 in the month of August and 8-2 in their last 10 games with a half-game lead in the AL Wild Card.

This team was a surprising sensation a year ago that found itself in the AL Wild Card Game in the Bronx. But now, they have a chance (if they cannot catch the Houston Astros at least) to host the Wild Card game — a huge advantage that they didn’t have last season.

They own the fifth-best home record in baseball of 43-24 and being as though they hit a good share of home runs and their pitching staff is starting to get into a groove, I’d say no matter who comes into town, the A’s are the favorites to win that Wild Card Game if it occurs in Oakland.

This is such a tricky team to get a read on because they don’t really pop off the screen in any sort of way. They’re very much like the Rays in that they handle their business quietly and pitch collectively well as a staff.

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The only difference being, of course, they’re much more apt in the power department at the plate.

I don’t particularly love any one team in the AL coming down the stretch for a pennant win. The Yankees, in my humble opinion, have a feel to them that they can win almost any series with the way their bench has performed this year in replacement of the team’s stars.

But their starting rotation is such a wild card that even though the lineup could carry the day, the pitching could implode at any point and let them down. And they’re in the middle of a bit of a cold streak, so their stock isn’t too high right now.

The Astros are one of the best teams in baseball and have been so all year, but in all honesty, I’m just not feeling it from them if that makes any sense. Something just seems off with them; something that wasn’t there in 2017 when they won it all.

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It may be Jose Altuve‘s slow start. It may be Carlos Correa and his injury woes. I don’t know for sure.

Yes, they’re a very good team, but I feel like they’ve been a little quieter than I thought they’d be coming into the year; and I even pegged them as my AL World Series representative.

Maybe when it’s all said and done, somebody comes out of nowhere to spoil it all and win the pennant. Maybe that team could be the A’s since they can flat-out pitch.

All I’m saying is that we have the light shining on the Yankees and Astros, but both teams don’t exactly look like “locks” to win the American League even though they’re probably the two best teams in the AL.

Maybe we need to look somewhere else. Somewhere unexpected.