Los Angeles Angels pushing for first place in AL West
By Hayden Kane
The Oakland Athletics have been the most dominant team in baseball from wire to wire so far in the 2014 season. They have the best pitching, the best hitting, and they made aggressive trade deadline moves that arguably make them the World Series favorites.
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With all of that being true, and with the A’s holding an MLB-best 66-42 record, they still have a lot of work to do just to win their own division. The reason? The Los Angeles Angels, who are just one game back at 65-43.
Alex Cora put the situation in perspective on Twitter.
The A's have the best record in baseball and the smallest division lead.
— Alex (@ac13alex) August 2, 2014
The Athletics still boast their ridiculous +161 run differential overall, but the Angels have outpaced pretty much any other team in the league with their +92 mark.
When considering the trade that the A’s made for Jon Lester on Thursday, this is not just with the playoffs or a World Series in mind; Oakland has to make sure they actually win their division first. One of these teams is going to face the prospect of a one-game wild card round. That means the distinct possibility of facing Felix Hernandez in a must-win scenario.
It seems unfathomable to think that we will reach the divisional round of the playoffs and not have both of these teams involved, but that is a distinct possibility. And with the way the Angels are running right now, there is no guarantee that it will be the A’s who win the AL West.