OAKLAND — They were two games under .500 and languishing in fourth place in the American League West midway through June. A month later, they had improved to 13 games over, but were still eight games back of first place.
All of that is irrelevant at this point. Now, with six weeks to go in the regular season, it’s a horse-race in the AL West, with the upstart A’s and the defending World Series champion Houston Astros all tied atop the division standings.
The A’s belted eight doubles — tying an Oakland record — and received a sterling effort from pitcher Trevor Cahill to earn a 7-1 over the Astros on Saturday, as an announced Coliseum crowd of 32,204 reveled in seeing Oakland back in a tie for first place for the first time since the second day of the season.