May 21 Oakland Athletics: Moonshots and Madness

Athletics (20-23)

 I like to think that Billy Beane and David Forst and some dude that looks like Jonah Hill in "Moneyball" are all in a crappy basement somewhere that has been transformed into a data analyzing, numbers-crunching tech center where they figure out how to do things in the strangest way possible so that no one can understand how, for example, they lead the American League in home runs and are just three games below .500 with this lineup of unproven youngsters and aging veterans.

They, improbably, earned a series win over the Red Sox last night. Khris Davis, Chad Pinder and Mark Canha all went yard in the 5th inning with monster moonshots. Pinder hit the ball so hard he "kind of" blacked out.

 Sean Manaea picked up his second win less than a week after one of the weirdest pitching performances you will see this season - an all or nothing affair where he walked five batters while also striking out seven. Last night he walked no one.

The A's look for the sweep today, less than a week after bottoming out with the worst record in the American League.

The box.

Trevor Plouffe almost ended up a Red Sox. Ryan Dull heads to the DL, but it doesn't look long term.



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