The Oakland Athletics three game sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees has dropped them further into last place in the American League West. The A's find themselves four games back of the first place Texas Rangers. Now that the Rangers have regained Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz, while retaining their hold on first place, we might see them start to pull away. They lack consistent pitching but they can sure hit the heck out of the ball.
The team that is surprising some (well, at least surprising me) would be the Seattle Mariners. They came into the season with numerous question marks and were expected to be fourth in the division. There's still plenty of time left in the season, but for now the Mariners are managing to hang around, sitting 1 1/2 games back of first place.
The A's now head off on a ten game road trip through Boston, Baltimore and Chicago. They have proven they can hang with these teams in the past, but given the team's recent struggles, who knows where the team will be in the standings in ten days.