A's Brett Anderson Shut Down For Regular Season

The Oakland Athletics have shut down ace left-hander Brett Anderson for the remainder of the regular season after learning of the severity of his strained right oblique, report Jane Lee and Athony Odoardi of MLB.com:

The news on Brett Anderson's strained right oblique was worse than expected.

"He's not going to pitch the rest of the season," manager Bob Melvin said. "It's a Grade 2 strain. Unfortunately, that's the case."

Anderson, 24, suffered the injury during the third inning of his Wednesday start, but the Athletics had to wait until yesterday afternoon to receive the unfortunate MRI results. Manager Bob Melvin said that Anderson is definitively done for the regular season, but may be called upon to pitch if Oakland makes the postseason.

The young left-hander made just six starts this season after returning from Tommy John surgery in late August, but pitched as well as the Athletics or anyone else could have hoped. Anderson posted a 2.57 ERA and 6.4 K/9 across thirty-five innings, only failing to pitch through six innings in his final start (because of the injury).

With Brandon McCarthy recovering from brain surgery and Bartolo Colon serving a PEDs suspension, the Athletics have now lost three starting pitchers for the remainder of the regular season. At four and a half games up in the wild card standings, the A's will have to rely on their young pitching to get them to the playoffs.