So much for celebrating the wild card. The Oakland Athletics went on and won the American League West while they were at it.
Two days after celebrating at least a berth in Friday's one-game wild-card play-off, Oakland shocked Texas by completing a three-game sweep to earn a shot at Detroit in the best-of-five division series.
The Oakland A's, labelled by some of their own fans the Triple-A's before the season started, spent one day of the 2012 season alone in first place in the division: the last one.
"We were like a train," A's designated hitter Jonny Gomes told MLB.com. "We got on that track and just kept it going. No east and west, we knew we were just going north."
The A's came back from five games down with nine games left to make their first post-season since 2006.
They rallied from four runs down to win their last game against Texas 12-5, their seventh victory this year when trailing by four or more runs. The A's took the lead 7-5 after Rangers centre fielder and former AL Most Valuable Player Josh Hamilton dropped a flyball.
It was symbolic of the shock the entire Rangers team felt.
The A's trailed the two-time defending AL West champions by 13 games on June 30. But they became only the fifth team in major league history to come back from at least 13 games down to win a division, joining the 1914 Boston Braves, the 1951 New York Giants, the 1978 Yankees and the 1995 Seattle Mariners.
They did it with the lowest payroll in baseball at US$59.5 million (Dh218.4m) and after trading away former ace Gio Gonzalez to Washington, where he won 21 games, as well as All-Star pitchers Trevor Cahill (Arizona) and Andrew Bailey (Boston).
Oakland's Opening Day starter Brandon McCarthy was lost for the season after taking a line drive to the head on September 5. Bartolo Colon was slapped with a 50-game suspension after testing positive for synthetic testosterone.
So the A's came down the stretch with four rookies in their starting rotation, and a rookie No 3 hitter.
The result? The Athletics had a 3.59 ERA after the All-Star break and collected 54 wins overall from rookie pitchers.
The last of those came in the final game of the season when Evan Scribner picked up the win after three scoreless innings of relief. That rookie outfielder - the Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes - hit .292 with 23 home runs and 82 RBIs. Oakland went 82-46 in games he played and 12-22 without him.
The A's did it with power, pitching and intangibles. They led the majors with 14 walk-off victories.
Fittingly, on Wednesday, they walked off champions.
sports@thenational.ae
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Company%20Profile
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THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Titan Sports Academy:
Programmes: Judo, wrestling, kick-boxing, muay thai, taekwondo and various summer camps
Location: Inside Abu Dhabi City Golf Club, Al Mushrif, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Telephone: 971 50 220 0326
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.