IMPROBABLE! OAKLAND A'S CHAMPIONS OF BASEBALL
October 31, 2016
THE OAKLAND A'S ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1989! The team that was given a 0.7% chance of making the playoffs on September 1st shocked the world and delivered one of the most improbably runs in Major League Baseball history. The team went 21-8 over the last 29 games of the Major League season before coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the ALDS against Cleveland, taking a 4-1 series win over Toronto and then coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win the Championship game against Washington!
All of this comes after a fire sale at the trade deadline which shipped out RF Josh Reddick, DH Billy Butler, 3B Danny Valencia, SP Chris Bassitt, MR John Axford and MR Ryan Madson. They were replaced by guys like RF Andrew Lambo, DH Evan Gattis, 3B Gordon Beckham, SP Felix Doubront, MR Aaron Kurcz and MR Fernando Rodriguez. Not to mention that SS Marcus Semien and Closer Sean Doolittle suffered season ending injuries throughout the year and had to be repalced by SS Eric Sogard and CL Liam Hendriks.
The team's payroll at end of season sat at $46.8, the lowest in the MLB taking Moneyball to a new extreme. The team they defeated in the World Series had a payroll of almost $100 million more. And General Manager David Forst was able to do something that Billy Beane could never do: win a World Series.
The Game 7 win did not come easy though. Kendall Gravemen went only 5 innings and allowed 2 runs, leaving much of the game up to a tired A's bullpen. But the A's offense got cooking, scoring 4 runs off of All-Star Stephen Strasburg in the same 5 innings. That would be enough for the A's to take the win and the series, as Felix Doubront delivered 3 innings of 1-hit ball and Liam Hendriks pitched a scoreless 9th in a non-save, save situation. The big blows to the Nats came via the longball. Andrew Lambo delivered a huge 3-run homerun in the 1st, which was enough to win the game outright and then Jed Lowrie deliverd the final cushion wit a 2-run homerun in the 8th inning.
The victory gave the A's franchise their 10th World Series win and their 5th victory in Oakland. Catcher Stephen Vogt was named World Series MVP.