Acquisitions

This A’s team started the year off hot going 18-10 through the end of April and held a 3-game lead in the division. They continued through May and were in first place throughout the entire month and posted a 16-12 record in the month. They continued up until the all-star break and stayed in first place every step of the way with a 59 and 36 record and a 1.5 lead record in the division. However, before the all-star break even hit the A’s addressed one of their biggest needs, SP. On July 5th the A’s traded Billy McKinney, Addison Russell, and Dan Straily to the Cubs in exchange for Jason Hammel and Jeff Samardzija. However, going into the deadline the A’s knew they still needed an ace to make a playoff run. The A’s swung a blockbuster trade with the Red Sox and sent Yoenis Cespedes and a competitive balance pick to the Sox for Jon Lester, Jonny Gomes, and cash considerations. Also on deadline day, to help replace Cespedes the A’s sent pitcher Tommy Milone to the Twins for Sam Fuld. The A’s held a 2.5 game lead after the deadline, and with the new ace they were poised to make a run.

Streaks

The A’s started the month of August on a heater going 6-3 to start the month and pushed the lead to 4 games. However, the they fell apart the rest of the month going 6-13 to finish the month, and heading into September they were already down 5 games in the division. They were even worse in September going 10-16 to finish the year of 88-74. However, they snuck into the Wild Card Game and went to Kansas City to play the Royals. Despite the A’s being one of the coldest teams in baseball, there was still some optimism, due to the fact that Jon Lester would be on the bump for the A’s and he had been red hot.

After the Royals jumped out to a 3-2 lead after 3 innings, the A’s jumped on them with a 5-run 6th inning which was capped off by Brandon Moss's 2nd HR of the game, this time a 3-run shot. This gave the A’s a 7-3 lead which they were very comfortable with due to the fact their bullpen had been very good this year. Heading into the bottom of the 8th, the A’s just needed 6 outs and Lester had been rolling. After a leadoff single and SB by Alcides Escobar, Lester got a groundout for the first out. He had a runner on 3rd with one out up 4, though the game was still very comfortable. However after an RBI single and walk there was 1st and 2nd, 1 out, with a 7-4 lead. The A’s called to the pen bringing in Luke Gregerson. The Royals then scraped together 2 more runs off Gregerson. Heading into the 9th, the A’s were still clinging to a 1-run lead. After getting bases loaded in the top half of the 9th, the Royals could not scrape together an insurance run. Sean Doolittle came in to close the door, but after a leadoff single, sac bunt, SB, and a sac fly, we are going to extras. The A’s had lost all momentum and despite them getting a run in the top half of the 12th, the Royals came back again in the 12th and walked in off. The A’s season was over.

Concluding thoughts

This team had so many memorable players and had such a weird season. However, if I dive deeper into the stats, this team should have been so much better. The A’s were 21-28 in one-run games, and 30-13 in blowout games (5+ runs). They were dominant in high-scoring games but just could not close out close run games. This led to them having a Pythagorean win total (based off run differential) of 99-63. They were so much better than they are given credit for. The 2014 A’s are my favorite random team, they should be yours too.