The Oakland A’s can’t mathematically clinch the AL West division crown on Thursday, but they can functionally wrap it up with a victory.
The A’s are 5.5 games ahead of the Houston Astros in the standings, and so far have beaten the Astros in three of four games this week. They have one more this afternoon, and then only 18 games remaining after that in the regular season.
Oakland calls on Sean Manaea to start the series finale. The lefty looked dynamite his last time out, finally recovering a couple extra ticks of velocity that had been missing for a long time — 92.