Programming note: A's-Tigers coverage gets underway today at 3:30 p.m. with A's Pregame Live on Comcast SportsNet California!
A's rookies have thrown 641.2 inning this season - the most in baseball by far. With 4 rookies in the rotation the A's could set a record for most innings pitch by rookies on a team that advances to the postseason:
Most Innings Pitched by Rookies
Teams thatadvanced to Postseason1952Brooklyn Dodgers720.12012Oakland Athletics641.21944St. Louis Browns569.21984Kansas City Royals534.21947New York Yankees4681949Brooklyn Dodgers457.1
But not only that, the A's have 4 rookie everyday players (Cespedes, Carter, Norris, Donaldson). Only one team in history ever started 4 rookies in a postseason game - the 2007 Arizona Diamondbacks did that 3 times - and who was the manager of the 2007 D-Backs? Bob Melvin.
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The A's are starting a totally different infield and catcher compared to what they started for the first 2 months of the season:
A's Regular Lineup
April-MaySeptember
CSuzuki, ReckerNorris, Kottaras1BBarton, Ka'aihueCarter, Moss2BWeeksPennington, RosalesSSPenningtonDrew
3BIngeDonaldson
Most Home Runs by First BasemenAmericanLeague
Angels33
White Sox32
Athletics30
Blue Jays30
Orioles27
Tigers26
Last Season: A's 1B hit 7 HR - Fewest in Majors
Athletics
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MostHome Runs
FirstSeason with New Team
Josh WillinghamMIN34Albert PujolsLAA30Josh ReddickOAK29Carlos BeltranSTL29Jason KubelARI29Prince FieldeDET26Ryan LudwickCIN26
Most Batter Strikeouts
A.L. History
2007Tampa Bay1,324
2010Tampa Bay1,292
2011Seattle1,280
2011Cleveland1,269
1996Detroit1,268
2009Texas1,253
2012Oakland1,232
The A's will take their league-leading road winning pct into the 3 cities whose teams have the 3 best home winning pcts:
Best Road Winning Pct in A.L.
Oakland40-31.563Baltimore40-32.556Texas40-32.556New York40-34.541Los Angeles40-35.533
Best Home Winning Pct in A.L.Texas47-27.635Detroit43-28.606New York43-29.597Oakland44-31.587Chicago43-31.581
A.J. Griffin is 6-0 with a 1.94 ERA in his first 11 big-league starts. Since the major leagues began recording earned runs in 1912, the only other pitcher who was undefeated in his first 11 big-league appearances, all of which were starts, while maintaining an earned run average under 2.00, was Jered Weaver in 2006 (12 GS, 9-0, 1.95).
Lowest WHIP This Season
Min 10 Starts
A.J. GriffinOAK0.91Brandon BeachyATL0.96Jered WeaverLAA1.00Clayton KershawLAD1.02R.A. DickeyNYM1.04Matt CainSF1.05Justin VerlanderDET1.05
Max Scherzer
Since June 28th
Starts14
Rec10-1
ERA2.53
Opp Avg.221
IP92.1
K's113
Leads Majors
Max Scherzer
Last 3 Starts: 1 Walk, 25 Strikeouts
A.L. MVP Candidates
Miguel CabreraMike TroutJosh HamiltonGames145124137Avg.330.329.287HR382742RBI12377123Runs9711698OPS.993.957.947
Detroit Tigers
Since August 8
Record17-191-Runs Games2-13AVG.256RGM4.0ERA3.45SavesOpps912
Lost Last10 Games Decided by 1 Run