The Oakland Athletics open up a three game series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, followed by four games at home against the Texas Rangers. While it's only late April at this point, every game will be important in the A's hunt to win the American League West title. If the division title comes down to one or two games, these seven games in April are just as important as late September games.
As things currently stand, the A's are 11, sitting 3 1/2 games back of the Rangers for first place and a game back of the Angels for second place. Oakland is 3 1/2 games up on the Mariners after splitting four games with Seattle this past weekend. The A's also sit a mere one game back in the wild card race, with Detroit, Kansas City and Los Angeles sitting in first there. The wild card race is not something anybody gets too excited about in April. Positioning is nice, but the wild card race won't really heat up until probably after the All Star Break.
For now, the A's have a chance to gain important positioning within their own division. If they can four or five of the next seven games, they'll be in a solid position at the start of May.