A’s wasted a fantastic month of pitching in July

The Oakland Athletics were extremely active at the MLB trade deadline, and it’s no wonder.

They made a bevy of upgrades to their lineup because the club’s pitching staff just completed an incredible month of July, posting an ERA of 2.98, but the A’s record during that time was cringe-worthy.

The A's went 11-13 in July. Their pitching staff had a 2.98 ERA in the month.

— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) July 31, 2021

That 11-13 record is eye-popping next to that low ERA. But how bad was it in July, exactly? Historically bad, as it turns out. Here are the details, courtesy of Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.

The A's .458 winning percentage in July was their 2nd worst in a month in the past 50 seasons when they had a sub-3.00 ERA (min 5 games played). The only worst month came in Sept. 2014, when they went 10-16 (.385) with a 2.85 ERA https://t.co/o0olV9TgBw

— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) August 1, 2021

But reinforcements are on the way. The A’s added center fielder Starling Marte, catcher Yan Gomes and utility player Josh Harrison at the trading deadline. Marte has played in a number of games for the A’s already, and Gomes and Harrison are on schedule to appear in the green and gold on Sunday.

According to Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle, Gomes will hit sixth and catch and Harrison will play second base and hit seventh in the A’s last game of a four-game set against the Angels.

But will the pitching staff have a July-like performance in August? Either way, the lineup has to improve. It was a shame to post such a poor record last month when the pitchers did their job as well as one could expect. The club has a lot of work to do, sitting 5.5 games behind the Astros in the American League West as of Sunday morning.