Fastball

Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics to Be a Part of Unique Baseball History on Monday Night

When the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics meet on Monday night in Oakland, it will represent the biggest gap in winning percentages in a single baseball game since 1932.

Brady Farkas

Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics to Be a Part of Unique Baseball History on Monday Night
Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics to Be a Part of Unique Baseball History on Monday Night /
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The Oakland Athletics made baseball history on Sunday in a positive way by sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers.

But as has happened so many times this year, the A's can't outrun being involved in history on the negative side also.

Such will be the case on Monday night when they host the Tampa Bay Rays:

Per @OptaSTATS on Twitter:

The 452-point difference in winning percentage between the Rays (.706) and Athletics (.254) is the largest going into any game (min. 60 GP) since July 3, 1932, when there was a 500-point difference between the Yankees (49-21, .700) and the Red Sox (14-56, .200).

That's certainly a testament to how good the Rays have been this year -- and how poor the A's have been, regardless of the five-game winning streak.

Tampa Bay is currently an MLB-best 48-20, leads the American League East by 5.5 games and has won eight of its last 10 games.

The A's on the other hand, are an MLB-worst 17-50.

This matchup represents a stark contrast within the Major League Baseball statistical leaderboard: The Rays are second in baseball in runs scored, batting average and home runs and rank first in total bases. On the pitching side, they are in the top five of both team ERA and team WHIP.

Oakland is last in the league in ERA, WHIP and 29th in team batting average.

Monday's pitching matchup pits Zach Eflin for Tampa Bay against James Kaprielian for the A's. Eflin is 8-1 with a 2.97 ERA while Kaprielian is 1-6 with a 7.21 ERA.

First pitch is 9:40 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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