The A’s Bust and Boom Their Way to First Place

The franchise has swung from unbeatable to unwatchable ever since its Philadelphia days. The 2021 team has been both in the first three weeks of the season.

Bob Melvin shook his head and let out a raspy sigh behind the microphone at his Zoom news conference on Wednesday. Through the screen, it seemed to one reporter that Melvin, the manager of the Oakland Athletics, was having an emotional reaction to his team’s 11th consecutive victory. “It’s not emotional,” Melvin said, smiling. “I don’t have any voice left.” Even by the standards of baseball’s most all-or-nothing franchise, April has been a month to shout about. The A’s lost their first six games of the season for the first time in more than a century. They won a game, lost a game, and haven’t lost since.