Friday: Orioles 1-9 Athletics

Saturday: Orlioles 4-9 Athletics

Sunday: Orioles: 0-3 Athletics

So, the Orioles are pretty poor at the moment. And, as previously discussed, the White Sox don’t even consider hitting opposition pitchers whom they have not seen before. To do so would seem uncouth, apparently. All this being the case, the Athletics have still won six in a row, seven of their last ten, and are now just five games below .500. It only seems like yesterday that they were on course for a hundred loss season, but now they’re only three games behind the Angels (seven and a half behind the Texas Rangers, but everyone knows they’re going to wilt in the heat of the summer, right?), and have outscored the opposition 37 to 8 over their last six games. Oh, and Vin Mazzaro has set a new record for scoreless innings by an Oakland starting pitcher at the beginning of his career. Winner!

They will now almost certainly reach the playoffs.

Hm, ok, apparently there’s a five percent chance they could do it. But still – it’s nice to have some sort of hope, huh? I mean, wondering who Matt Holliday is going to be traded for is only going to get us so far, right?

More specifically, this was a pretty great weekend in A’s land. I was at the Friday night game; there’s a chance that we didn’t get to our seats in time to see the A’s six run top of the first, but we were still able to watch a masterful performance from Dallas Braden. His fastball was perfectly located, and which set up his off speed stuff. A real joy to watch. He’s going again on Wednesday, when, once again, I’ll be at the game. Two dollar Bradens! Also, Luke Scott’s homer for the Orioles was preposterous; he just flicked his wrists at it and it just disappeared. Would I like to see him on the A's? I sure would.

There were no home runs for the A’s on Saturday. There were, however, a franchise record equaling eight doubles. Eight! And another solid outing from Trevor Cahill; Probably the most important stat in his line was the zero walks. He’s still going to need to add another non fastball pitch to his repertoire, but his control is improving and the foundations for success are definitely laid.

And what more can you say about Vin Mazzaro? Clearly, he’s going to regress some. He’ll give up some runs, he’ll have some sticky situations this year; that much is assured. But at the moment he looks totally at home, utterly assured on the mound. I can’t wait for the chance to see him pitch; he’s due up against the Giants in interleague on Friday, and hopefully I’ll be there.

Next up, though, are the Twins; Mauer, Morneau et al. They’re in second place in the AL central at the moment. However, they’re coming off two losses in Seattle, and have the worst away record in the whole of the American League, with just seven victories. Fortunately, the A’s miss Kevin Slowey this time around; there’s a real chance for another series victory.

Go A’s!