The Oakland Athletics won the American League West. Yet with the postseason about to begin the team is not providing much hope for a successful postseason run and it’s for one reason only. Its offense!
Robbie Grossman considered the team’s most consistent hitter has so far hit .213 in September and seen his average drop from .267 to .230; Ramon Laureano has come up with some big hits of late yet since his four game suspension for his run in with Alex Cintron has not found any consistency at the plate and his average is at .220, Marcus Semien who came in third in MVP voting in 2019 is hitting .222, Matt Olson who leads the team in home runs and rbi has been horrific this season while struggling to catch up to fastballs he normally hits and Matt Chapman’s season ended early due to a hip injury.
Even more headscratching has been the lack of production from designated hitter Khris Davis.
For the A’s, Tommy La Stella has been their most consistent hitter since arriving from the Los Angeles Angels. His average is at .270 with Oakland and Jake Lamb is also hitting .270 since being acquired.
It has also been the same struggles offensively for the entire season for the A’s. Situational hitting has been non existent. On Friday night, Chris Bassitt was tremendous. The offense couldn’t get going and didn’t score a run until the bottom of the 10th. Oakland did go 2-11 with runners in scoring position.
On Saturday in a double-header versus the Seattle Mariners. The A’s went a combined 2-16 in those situations and managed only four runs.
Surprisingly the A’s are hitting .230 with runners in scoring position overall. It’s certain situations where it seems the team struggles the most such as with a runner on first base no matter how many outs got recorded in the inning, if a runner is on first and second or first and third with no outs. That doesn’t bode well for success in the postseason.
Pitching wise Chris Bassitt (2.29 era) has been the A’s most consistent starter. Sean Manaea has recovered from a dreadful start to the season where he couldn’t even get to five innings pitched and his era is now 4.50. Jesus Luzardo is the only other option to make a start in the postseason.
Frankie Montas has been off since his start got skipped due to a back injury. At the time he posted a 1.57 era struck out 22 and walked nine. In six starts since his era is 10.88 with 25 strike outs and 12 walks while also giving up 10 home runs.
With the new playoff format the A’s clinched the no.2 seed after beating the Seattle Mariners 6-2 today. Oakland will face the Chicago White Sox.
Their offense continues to sputter so don’t expect the A’s to go far this postseason. It wouldn’t come as a shock if their season got ended by the White Sox in the first round.