Oakland beat Toronto 8-3 while Houston beat Seattle 8-3 Wednesday afternoon. That puts the Athletics in a tie with the Mariners for the second wild card slot in the American League. Six weeks ago it looked like the AL west would be a two-team race, with the Astros leading the Mariners by 1/2 game, and Oakland in fourth place 11 1/2 games out of first place. Since then, Oakland is 30-10, the best record in the majors. The Astros are 22-16, while Seattle went 18-19.

Oakland’s offense is up versus that previous period, with their OBP up about 30 points and their slugging percentage up about 50 points.

On the pitching side their OBP allowed in down a bit since the previous period, while the slugging percentage allowed is down about 25 points. The pitching was good and now it’s better. The offense was mediocre, and now it’s great.

Mark Cahna, Chad Pinder, Kris Davis, and Stephen Piscotty showed large improvements. Now it’s up to these hitter to carry this forward for two more months to see if they can catch Houston.