The Oakland A’s just got swept by the Texas Rangers. In all three games, Oakland held a lead in the 7th inning or later, but their bullpen coughed it up each time. That experience is enough to get any fan screaming at the TV, but let’s take a deeper look at the pen’s performance so far.
One thing that made the weekend particularly frustrating was that there wasn’t one pitcher who could easily be singled out as the culprit. When the A’s beat K-Rod two days in a row the previous weekend, it was easy to respond by suggesting the Tigers should simply shift the superior Justin Wilson into the closer role.