A's Secure First Winning Month in Two Years

Jason Burke | Jul 27, 2024

Jul 25, 2024; Anaheim, California, USA; Oakland Athletics right fielder Lawrence Butler (4) is greeted by teammates in the dugout after hitting a home run during the third inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports / Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports

For the first time since July of 2022, the Oakland A's have secured a winning month. That is what they like to call progress. It's also fitting that the last two wins down in Anaheim featured the return of starters Ross Stripling and Paul Blackburn. The A's were 14-17 at the end of April, before injuries came for nearly their entire starting rotation.

This month they sit at 13-7, and with the All Star break in the middle of the month, and two off-days next week, the A's only have four games remaining in July. Now, part of the reason they're playing so well is because they have played three series against the Angels this month, with two more games to wrap up their season series over the weekend. After being swept in Anaheim at the end of June, the A's have gone 7-2 against the Halos in July.

Somehow the Angels are still above Oakland in the standings, holding a three-game lead over the green and gold. In fact, they're the third-hottest team in the division with a 6-4 record in their last ten, sitting behind the A's and Rangers at 7-3. The two teams atop the AL West happen to be the ones playing the worst right now.

All four of those losses for the Angels have come at the hands of the A's, meanwhile, five of those six wins have come at the expense of the Seattle Mariners. The M's have managed to score one run in four of those games, and two runs in the other.

The A's offense has been cooking with gasoline this month, scoring the most runs in Baseball with 134, hitting the most homers (40), they rank fourth in batting average (.276), second in OBP (.349), and lead the way in OPS (.866).

When sorting through the MLB stats page, for some reason Lawrence Butler doesn't show up when you sort by OPS, and no, it's not that he doesn't have enough qualified at-bats. What you're not seeing without paying attention, is the Butler's 1.423 OPS leads all of MLB this month, yes, even ahead of Bobby Witt Jr., who is batting .493 in July with a 1.372 OPS. Law has clubbed nine homers to Witt's six.

Brent Rooker has also clubbed nine homers this month, giving him 25 on the season. He finished last year with 30, and is very much on pace to break his career-high this year. Rook has been one of the best hitters in baseball all year long, ranking sixth in wRC+ with a 166. Judge, Soto, and Ohtani are in their own realm, and then Witt, Ozuna and Rooker are separated by two points from four through six.

Those have been the two main cogs, but Max Schuemann, hitting ninth, has been the third-best regular hitter in the lineup, consistently setting the table for Law at the top of the order. He has a 204 wRC+ this month.

If you lower the number of plate appearances to 30, a returning Seth Brown has been right in that mix too, putting up a 212 wRC+ in 11 games, collecting 36 plate appearances. He was called up when Tyler Soderstrom went on the IL and has been getting time at first base.

The A's pitching hasn't been lights out necessarily, but they've been getting good contributions from a few guys. One name that stands out is Osvaldo Bido, who has appeared in five games, starting one, collecting 11 innings pitched, and holding a 1.64 ERA.

As a team, the A's rank 20th in team ERA in July with a 4.39, which is a touch better than their ERA on the year at 4.41.

We said it a few days ago, but it rings even more true now: The A's are becoming fun again.