The A's might have wrapped up their playoff spot days ago, but the big question of who they would play was still up in the air. Finally, this afternoon, the A's got their opponent, the Minnesota Twins.
How the Twins got here is one of this season's big baseball stores. Buried for dead during the first half of the season and facing a huge deficit to the Tigers, the Twins came out of nowhere and took the AL Central crown on the very last day of the season. They did so by beating the White Sox 5-1 today while the Tigers blew a lead late to the last-place Royals. How improbable was this turn of events? We had already pretty much written a post about the A's taking on the Tigers. It was pretty good, too, way better than this one.
Truth is, the Twins are not the team the A's wanted, especially in a five game series. They have home-field advantage and play in one of the toughest places to play in baseball, have Johan Santana going in Game 1 and available in Game 5, two possible MVP candidates, and are really, really, really hot right now. Like Scarlett Johansson hot, which for you statheads comes out as 71-33 hot. Sure, their Game 2 starter is Boof Bonser, but that hasn't really been much of a problem this season.
And for A's fans looking to do a little celebrating and a little rallying, there will be rally for the Athletics in downtown Oakland tomorrow.
Be there or be whatever.