BOSTON -- There are two things a baseball team tries to do when hopelessly out of contention in September: Get a good look at the young guys and perhaps even play the role of spoiler for the teams still in it for October.
The young Oakland Athletics did both over the weekend while scrambling the race for the American League's top record.
On Tuesday night, Oakland opens a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, hoping to do more of the same.
"I'm not saying it was unexpected, but the fashion we did it in was pretty impressive," A's manager Bob Melvin said after his team finished off a four-game sweep of the front-running Houston Astros -- scoring 41 runs in the process.