The Past Doesn't Matter for Athletics, White Sox as They Gear Up for Wild Card Collision
The Oakland A’s and the Chicago White Sox play baseball at a high level, but going into Game 1 of the American League wild card series, they don’t have much in common beyond that.
The Sox crush the ball. They led the American League in home runs (96). Only the Yankees scored more runs (306). They finished second to the Red Sox in batting average at .261.
The A’s are a pitching-and-defense team. Oakland’s bullpen slumped down the stretch, but still finished with a 2.74 ERA that led all of MLB. The team ERA is 3.76, fifth-best in the big leagues, as was their opponents’ on-base percentage ad 3.92.
They have the potential to hit a fair number of homers, but with Matt Chapman injured for most of the last month and Khris Davis limited to a platoon, their 71 homers were just 18 in MLB this year after they finished fifth a year ago.
There is one area where the team have a parallel. Coming down the stretch, both teams stumbled. The White Sox had a three-game lead in the American League Central on Sept. 19, then lost six in a row and seven of the final eight to fall into the No. 7 seed.
That A’s actually improved their seed from No. 3 to No. 2 has something to do with playing just well enough at 6-6 while their offense went in the tank for the final dozen games of the season with an average of just .208 and just 3.1 runs per game.
Guess what? None of that matters now. Both sides worked out at the Coliseum Monday afternoon. They announced their starting pitchers, right-hander Lucas Giolito for the Sox and lefty Jesús Luzardo for the A’s.
Just ask the White Sox’s Tim Anderson. He was hitting .375. Then he may as well have been hitting in the Oakland lineup. In his last 11 games, he averaged .130. His final average, .322, is still far and away better than anything the A’s have put up. But slumps are slumps.
Asked if he and the Sox were resetting after their dramatic skid, Anderson said, “For sure.”
“Yesterday ended the regular season, so now it’s time to really dig in and continue to work and keep rallying around one another. It’s do or die. Here we are at the end. It’s time to really lock it in.
“I’m like `So what? Nobody cares.’ Tomorrow’s a new day. I would rather have been cold then and hopefully I can get hot now. This is a fresh start.”
A’s shortstop Marcus Semien, third in the MVP race last year but nowhere near that this time around, said getting hot early was crucial. Getting hot again would be even more so.
“We played good baseball, we had a nine-game winning streak early,” Semien said. “I feel like we just used that cushion the whole season. We didn’t play great toward the end, but we played good enough to get the No. 2 seed. You look at the White Sox, they’re in the seventh seed and they’re only one game (36 wins for Oakland, 35 for Chicago) behind us. It’s just a weird setup.
“But it’s all about who gets hot right now. We didn’t play well at the end, but if we get hot now, it’s our series.”
Both managers, Rick Rentaria of the White Sox and Bob Melvin of the A’s, buy into that. And on top of the slumps, the A’s and the Sox haven’t seen each other except for one March 5 spring training game (a 6-5 A’s road win) since last year.
Rentaria said it’s a little like a Cactus League team starting the regular season against a Grapefruit League squad.
“You have to revert to past history, and maybe some of the scouting that goes on in terms of watching what guys do,” Rentaria said. “Trust me, we all get into the computers. We all get try to get as much of a visual of the guys and bits of information in terms of numbers.”
For Melvin, “This is a different postseason than any other. The only thing you can say is that we’ve had experience doing it.”
The A’s have played in the last two AL wild card games, losing both. The White Sox had not had a winning season since 2012 and haven’t been to the postseason since 2008. So, the A’s might have the advantage there.
“We’ve played with the adrenaline that those games have, especially the wild card game, it’s been one-and-done. Now it’s a three-game series, so it’s a little different.”
Both teams are having injury issues. Matt Chapman, one of the team leaders and a two-time Platinum Glove winner at third base, is lost to the A’s for the postseason after hip surgery. Sox left fielder Eloy Jimenez worked out Monday in the Coliseum, but while Chicago is optimistic that he’ll play after a right foot sprain kept him out of the final weekend of the year.
A’s starter Luzardo has never pitched against the White Sox in what has basically been a three-month big-league career. Giolito is 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA in two career starts against the A’s, but the California native (Santa Monica) has never pitched in the Coliseum.
Maybe Luzardo summed it up best.
“I do feel like every kid growing up,” he said of getting the start. “You know it’s your dream, and to be able to do it at a young age is just a blessing..”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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