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Are Oakland A’s in Midst of Another Typical Surge?

By Josh Sippie |

It seems like every year, at some point in the baseball season, the Oakland A’s go on a tear and remind everyone that they exist. Sometimes it is at the beginning of the season, sometimes at the end, but no matter what players they have lost and what players they have gained, the A’s rally harder than anyone else in baseball.

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The Oakland A’s were hanging around at the bottom of the American League West while never really losing ground on the rest of the division and you just had that feeling that this year would be no different.

Sure enough, here come the A’s.

Going 8-2 in their last ten games, the A’s are a mere 9.0 games behind the upstart Houston Astros and a team that had struggled to find any semblance of consistency this year has now found a pulse.

In the month of June, the Oakland A’s are 5th in the MLB in runs scored and third in the league in runs surrendered. That is all you need to know about why the Oakland A’s are doing so well all of a sudden but we will go more in depth.

No starting pitcher on the Oakland A’s roster has an ERA over 3.86 and three of the five have an ERA under 3.00. But that is to be expected. The A’s starting pitching is always a strong suit and with an ace like Sonny Gray, it is no wonder why.

Offensively, the surprising Stephen Vogt has broken out even more in recent games, hitting .365 in his last 15 games. But that’s pretty much been the story all year for Vogt.

The offensive trend setter right now is Brett Lawrie. The third base prospect that the Toronto Blue Jays had thought the world of is now raking in Oakland. In his last thirty games, Lawrie has tomahawked 5 home runs, tallied 19 RBIs and is maintaining a .318 batting average.

Despite losing their pride and joy, Josh Donaldson, the A’s are being carried by the offensive contributions of Josh Reddick, Stephen Vogt and Brett Lowrie. Marcus Semien may be having massive defensive difficulties but the short stop is putting up very good offensive numbers and it is pretty clear what all the hype was over this guy.

The Oakland A’s still have a huge hill to climb to get back in contention but with a starting pitching staff that keeps them in games and offensive weapons that produce runs in streaks, the A’s may very well be on their way to yet another improbable playoff run.

Next: What can Smolinski bring the A's?

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