The A’s didn’t get much help this weekend. The Angels, Yankees, and Indians all played contending teams, but only suffered one loss amongst them.
Oakland took two of three from Texas, but still managed to fall one game further back in the wild card and division standings.
In the next seven days, the A’s play three games against Cleveland, and four against Boston. The Angels play three against Seattle (and miss Felix Hernandez), and four against Detroit.
That’s a recipe for getting buried in a hurry. One losing week now, and the A’s are done. The playoff odds chart for the A’s could easily take a quick nosedive over the next few days.
BP puts the A’s wild card odds at only 2.6%. I imagine those wild card odds will approach zero if they don’t sweep Cleveland. The Indians have seven games left against Kansas City, almost automatic wins. To pass Cleveland without sweeping them, the A’s would have to blow through their remaining schedule. And even if they do sweep them, the Yankees lurk.
If the A’s do somehow play well enough to pass up both the Indians and Yankees, they’d probably end up passing the Angels, too. Their division odds are 28.1%. So at this point, it’s pretty much division or bust!. Still, it would be nice to keep those wild card hopes alive, too, by beating Cleveland.
I expect the Angels to go 5-2 or 6-1 this week. The A’s need to remain within two games of the Angels by the time they play them again, so that a 3-1 series win would bring them to a division tie.
I have tickets to the last A’s home game of the season, against the Angels. Here’s hoping it will mean something.