Monday: A’s 4-13 Rays

Tuesday: A’s 4-1 Rays

Wednesday: A’s 7-6 Rays

Thursday: A's 5-6 Rays

This is going to be one of those seasons, isn’t it. Coming off a tough, tough series against a resurgent Tigers team, the A’s got walloped in the first game of their four game set against the Rays, going down thirteen to four behind another shaky start from Sean Gallagher, who gave up nine runs in 2.1 innings of work. It was painful.  The A’s had lost four on the bounce, and if this season were a boxing match, then the A’s would have been reeling on the ropes and surely the referee would have been stepping in to stop the fight.

But then up steps Josh Outman, he throws six scoreless innings, and then tags in the bullpen and onto Matt Holliday for an 11th inning SMASH. Ok, that’s a wrestling metaphor, but that happens in a ring, too right? Anyway – this was one of the magical moments that makes baseball fun, and enjoyable, and makes you leap off your sofa and shout at the TV and then try and explain to your roommate that no, you’re  not crazy, but the A’s have WON a game.

And then it happens again the next day, when, following an encouraging start from Brett Anderson, and seven runs on just nine hits, Ryan Sweeney makes a preposterous sliding catch in left center field to secure the final out in the bottom of the ninth, when a misfield would have allowed the runner to score and the game to be tied up.

Amazing, right? The A’s have got their season turned around, momentum is building, Adam Kennedy and Matt Holliday are both hitting above four hundred for the last week. A fine start by Dallas Braden, giving up just three runs in seven innings of work, and some more timely hitting by Jason Giambi and Adam Kennedy allow the Athletics to take a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth, with their best reliever this year, Andrew Bailey, on the mound. Of course, then, the Rays come through with a two run game tying homer courtesy of Ben Zobrist, and before you know it, the Rays have won, the series is tied two each, and the A’s are back to where they were before they began, playing sub four hundred ball, showing flashes of brilliance, and lots of game losing ability.

So… The season goes on. In a few hours, the A’s start their interleague play against Arizona; I think a lot of fans are looking forward to Dan Haren’s return on Saturday, and of course, Eric Byrnes is perennially popular. The Diamondbacks are in pretty poor shape at the moment, having just sacked their manager and sitting on a 17-24 record. Hopefully, the A’s will be able to pick up on the good parts of their road trip, and at the very least, win the series. A sweep, of course, would be huge for a team which hasn’t won three games in a row so far this year. If you’re going out, enjoy the games!