The Oakland Athletics wrapped up their strongest run of the season with a sweep of the San Francisco Giants in the second half of the 2011 Bay Bridge Series. Over the past week the A’s have won a season high five straight games including the sweep of the Giants and a pair of wins over the Kansas City Royals. The five straight wins have allowed the A’s to regain three games in the standings as we approach the final ten days of June.
The A’s will be heading off on a six game road trip to face the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies and are hoping they’ve rediscovered the play that had them in first place at one point in May. The question is how much five straight wins over the Royals and Giants can count in terms of finding their groove. Nobody will turn down five straight wins, but in terms of the bigger picture, the wins came against two teams that are flawed in ways that helped the A’s.
The Royals are struggling mightily after a hot start as they have dropped into last place in the AL Central. The Giants remain in first place in the NL West, but their offense has quickly grown abysmal with the loss of Buster Posey and Freddy Sanchez. I’m ecstatic the A’s grabbed the wins, but I also don’t want to get ahead of myself as the team looks to continue this strong run.
This upcoming six game set will tell us a lot about this Oakland A’s team as it currently stands. They’re awaiting pitching reinforcements but in the meantime they need to find ways to win with what they’ve got. If they can at least secure a split of the next six road games, they could find themselves in a more stable position as the All Star break approaches. Road trips are always tough, but the A’s need to find ways to gut out some wins this coming week to prove this current streak has a little more substance to it.