Posted on 09/21/2020 10:35:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It took longer than they had hoped, but the A’s officially clinched their first AL West title since 2013 when the Houston Astros lost to the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Monday night. I
The A’s (33-20) will head to the playoffs with a different, yet familiar feel.
The expanded playoff format should benefit the A's, who haven't been able to get past the single-elimination Wild Card game. This year, they will play in the best-of-three Wild Card round at the Oakland Coliseum.
If the A's are able to advance out of the Wild Card round, they will enter the American League playoff bubble in San Diego or Los Angeles. That's a scenario A’s shortstop Marcus Semien welcomes with open arms.
"MLB's doing what they have to do to keep us safe, and to keep it going," Semien said prior to Saturday's game against the Giants. "We don't want to have any outbreaks, and the bubble seems like the best way to do that."
It’ll be different, sure, and who knows how next season will look, but for now, the team views it as a positive.
"I don't know where it goes next year, but for what we have this year, I think it's cool just to expand it a little bit, and show the fans some more baseball,” Semien added.
MLB announced earlier this week that the best-of-three Wild Card round will be held in the home stadiums of the higher seeds. That will be followed by the best-of-five Division Series, best-of-seven League Championship Series and the best-of-seven World Series -- all of which will be held at neutral-site locations.
For the A's, who finished in second-place in the AL West each of the last two seasons, winning the division isn't their primary goal. Winning a World Series is.
But it has to feel good for the A's to dethrone the Astros, who had a sign-stealing scandal uncovered over the offseason and became Public Enemy No. 1 throughout baseball.
Yawn! This “season” I discover I can grill hot dogs and drink beer in my back yard and know be bothered by all the kneeling b@st@rds.
It’s nice to see a team which isn’t among the big spenders have a great season. I hope they do well in the playoffs.
I heard someone say , that the 2020 season will have an asterisk in the record books, because as a short season, none of the playoff teams will have proven themselves over the long haul of a normal season. I’m sure that will be grist for the mill on sports talk radio and ESPN programs.
Tampa Bay also.
And the A’s almost had as many fans attending this year as they normally do.
Seriously, though, congratulations to them. They were clearly the best team in the division and won it fair and square.
NFC!
I’m more interested in the next toy Frank will buy.
yup
There was a baseball season before the playoffs this year?
Who knew?
Now that I think about it, the percentage of guys walking around with sports team merchandise (caps, jerseys) seems way down. Anyone else notice that?
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