Bay Baseball is Relevant Once Again
By Chris Glennon, Sports Editor
It looks like October baseball in the bay could be a mainstay for years to come. For young adults like myself, it's hard to imagine the A's and Giants both making the playoffs in the same season. It last happened in 2003, but since then, they have each made only one postseason appearance. The A's made it to the American League Championship series in 2006, while the Giants won the World Series in 2010.
There were many long years in between, with Bay Area sports fans looking forward to the start of the fall football season more than playoff baseball. This is starting to change.
The Giants should rap up the National League West division title any day now, while the A's are 3.5 games ahead of the Angels for one of the two American League Wild Card spots.
Both teams can thank their pitching staffs for much of their success. The A's have the 5th best team ERA in baseball at 3.48, while the Giants are 7th best at 3.74. Since their pitching is so strong, both teams would be at the top of my list of strong contenders that other teams should fear.
The format of the playoffs sometimes allows teams to start only three pitchers on a rotating basis, unlike the usual five-man rotation during the regular season. In the first round the Giants will likely be able to start Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner for four of the possible five games. The A's will be able to do the same thing with their respective pitchers, but their pitching prowess might be most useful in the new one-game wild card playoff.
It's hard not to root for teams like the A's and Giants because they haven't bought their talent like some of the other regular powers in baseball. Most of the A's and Giants star players came up through their farm systems, and because of this their young talent has both teams primed to settle at the top of their respective divisions for many years.
The Giants have won 21 of their last 31 games and are one of the hottest teams in baseball. The A's are playing well themselves, having gone 10-7 in September. They are currently on a 10 game road trip with stops in Detroit, New York and Texas, all of whom are in playoff contention. If the A's can survive this brutal stretch, they'll have six home games to end the year to try to lock up a playoff spot. They are currently four games behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West, but they play the Rangers seven more times, so challenging for a division title is not out of the question either.
Even though neither team's record is overly impressive, once the playoffs start anything can happen. The Giants' "Band of Misfits" proved that in 2010, and with the pitching and fearless young talent that both teams possess, I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen again.
Chris Glennon is an undeclared sophomore and editor of the sports section.