Happy Wednesday, Athletics Nation!
Well, what have we here? Coming into July, the A’s were a truly abysmal 25-53, on pace to lose 110 and break the franchise’s Oakland-era record of 108 losses in 1979. They were 24½ games behind the AL West leading Houston Astros and a full dozen behind the then-fourth place Seattle Mariners.
But through July the team has shown vast improvement: they’re two games over .500 at 12-10 so far this month. This hardly means the A’s are suddenly in contention, of course—the Astros have continued to outpace the Green and Gold this month and have pulled 28 games ahead in the division, even though the A’s have taken five of eight head-to-head contests in July with one more to play today.