A’s, Giants repping Bay Area baseball with MLB’s best records
Heading into this week, the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s have the best records in Major League Baseball, defying preseason predictions.
If you love Bay Area baseball, you’re in heaven right about now.
Looking at the standings heading into action on Juneteenth, the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics are atop the baseball world. The Giants, picked by most to be a distant third in the NL West behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, are an MLB-best 45-25 while riding a five-game winning streak.
Oakland, which has either won or been on pace for 97 wins each of the past three seasons, was seen as a second-tier contender in the American League by most, languishing behind the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox. Yet here’s the perennially underfunded and overachieving A’s, winners of seven straight and sitting at 44-27.
Yet respect is still short, with both looking at 20/1 odds to win the World Series.
Can the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants keep playing this well?
Taking a long view, both clubs appear to have staying power. The Giants have a +88 run differential, good for fourth-best in baseball. They’ve also allowed the third-fewest runs and rank third in fielding percentage.
As for Oakland, its rotation is second in quality starts (34) while the team is fifth in AL team ERA (3.83). The A’s are fourth in fielding percentage (.986), led by gold glovers at the corners in third baseman Matt Chapman and first baseman Matt Olson. Speaking of Olson, he’s a top MVP candidate with 19 homers and 50 RBI while hitting .295.
With a long way to go, both the Giants and A’s have divisional challenges to deal with. The Dodgers and Padres aren’t going away, while in the AL West, the Houston Astros are two games back and playing excellent baseball. There will be no runaways.
But for two Bay Area teams who were largely forgotten by the national pundits coming out of Spring Training, the A’s and Giants are serving notice as the weather heats up.