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World Series Bound! Oakland Defeats Toronto in 5!
October 21, 2016



The Oakland Athletics have continued the magical run they’ve been on since the calendar turned to September, this time dispatching the Toronto Blue Jays easily in 5 games. Sonny Gray and Clayton Blackburn shut down the Blue Jays high-powered offense in Games 1 & 2, winning 4-3 and 7-3 respectively. The Jays then took Game 3 by a score of 6-3. Oakland then handed the ball to their top duo of Gray and Blackburn, who once again shut down the Blue Jays offense with victories of 4-3 and 2-1.

Thanks to his strong efforts on the mound, Clayton Blackburn won the ALCS MVP Award. Blackburn went 11 innings, allowing 7 hits, 6 walks and struck out 11 batters in two starts. And Gray was almost just as good. He went 1-0 in two starts, allowing 15 hits, 3 walks and 5 runs over 13.2 innings (he also struck out 11).

On the offensive side, Andrew Lambo hit .286 with 2 homeruns and 4 RBI’s, Denard Span went 9-21 (.429) with 1 RBI and Evan Gattis hit .333 (7-21) with 3 RBI’s.

The A’s now will take on the Washington Nationals (96-66) in the World Series, a feat thought impossible by baseball people just 2 months ago. The Nationals are expected to be huge favorites and sport an impressive rotation of Stephen Strasburg (16-7, 2.78 ERA), Gio Gonzalez (11-11, 3.88 ERA) and Lucas Giolito (7-9, 2.91 ERA). Strasburg will take on Kendall Graveman (7-14, 4.72 ERA) in Game 1 tomorrow night in Oakland.