Friday: Blue Jays 3-5 Athletics
Saturday: Blue Jays 4-6 Athletics
Sunday: Blue Jays 5-0 Athletics

So, another three game weekend series that began encouragingly, but ended in disappointment. It could have been even worse, too, but for a single five run breakout inning in the Friday night matchup, followed by another tremendous bullpen performance. Jason Giambi hit a couple of home runs on Saturday afternoon to make keep the crowd involved, and make the scores respectable, but aside from that, there wasn’t a whole lot to enjoy.

The A’s have two days off this week, so hopefully they can regroup and try to find the right combination that will make things work better for them. Oddly enough, two thirds of the equation – average, but not great starting pitching and reliance on a strong bullpen are working, but the third, and possibly most important – the offense actually putting runs on the board – is sadly absent.

Anyway, here are some highlights, such as they were, from the series.

The Good

Ryan Sweeney hit his second home run of the year, and then the A’s added another three runs in the inning. For a minute, we were all able to fool ourselves into thinking that this was the way that the games would go for the rest of the year.

Jason Giambi’s two homers on Saturday put him at 399. His next one will make him only the third player to have hit his four hundredth in an A’s uniform. Hopefully, this will happen on Wednesday. More of this later…

Bobby Crosby is hitting .421 over the last week, taking in 19 at bats. I know, this scares me, too.

Bob Geren finally showed some sort of emotion and got himself thrown out of the game following a dodgy third strike called on Matt Holliday – perhaps a little more of this might spur the team into action.

The Bad

Matt Holliday continues to be frustratingly inconsistent; just as he looks like he’s ready to break out, he’ll go 2-12 in a three game series. More than anyone else, he represents both the struggles of the team, and the key to the rest of the season.

None of the three starting pitchers went more than six innings. At this rate, the A’s are going to have even more injuries in the bullpen than they do now, something they can ill afford.

The Ugly

Dallas Braden, one of the few glimpses of light in the darkness this season, got hit square in the chest by a comeback line drive in the first inning of his start on Sunday. He battled on through six, giving up three runs, but the whole organization must be wondering now if he’ll have recovered sufficiently to make his next start. Again, the two off days this week should work to the team’s advantage

Surprisingly, the A’s made four errors over the course of the three games. For a team that’s struggling, this is something that really hurts them.

Next up is a two game series against the in form Royals. Fortunately, they are again going to miss their ace, Zach Greinke, whose name is really hard to spell. Also, on Wednesday, I’m going to see the San Francisco Giants play the Washington Nationals, and then going over the bay to see the A’s royals evening game. Should be fun!