Monday: Athletics 2-6 White Sox

Tuesday: Athletics 5-0 White Sox

Wednesday: Athletics: 5-3 White Sox

Thursday: Athletics 7-0 White Sox

Is this it? Is this the series, the moment in time that we’ll be able to point to and say “This is when they turned it around, they figured it out, and set the stage for the 2011 World Series”? Or was it a solid win against a team that’s really not playing all that well, that has scored nearly as few runs as the A’s, and has an exceptionally poor record against pitchers that it hasn’t faced before, having only won a single game this season? The truth is, it’s probably somewhere in between. The A’s have been playing .500 level baseball for the last eighteen games now, and there are definitely signs that this isn’t a statistical anomaly. Fifteen of the last seventeen pitching starts have given the A’s a chance to win (not strictly quality starts by the dictionary definition, but please; we’re looking for what we can get!), and whilst Jack Cust has been a bit off of late (he’s battling a strained back), Matt Holliday has an OPS (on base percentage plus slugging) of over 1.000 for the past month, Jason Giambi is nearly up to .900, and the middle of the lineup is, while not exactly to be feared, to be respected.

And lo and behold, this is resulting in some wins. An eighth inning Santiago Casilla meltdown put paid to a decent start from Trevor Cahill in the opening game, but after that, it was all A’s, all the time. What can you say about Vin Mazzaro’s debut on Tuesday? Obviously, no-one’s going to seriously anoint him as the second come of Mark Mulder; any pitcher making a first start has an in built advantage due to the lack of scouting report on him. However, what was significant was his composure on the mound. He didn’t look ruffled once, as exemplified by his first innings pick-off of a runner at second base. You rarely see this anyway, but in your first innings in the big leagues? That’s seriously impressive. He’ll have to reduce the number of walks, and he did get a little lucky with fly balls to the outfield, but anyone who can throw93mph, a nice curveball and keep a cool head is going to be a success at the major league level.

This seemed to inspire the next two starters, Josh Outman and Brett Anderson. Outman went 6 2/3, giving up just two earned runs as they A’s backed him up with back to back home runs from, erm, Bobby Crosby and Landon Powell. The A’s clinched the series win behind seven shut-out innings from Brett Anderson (no walks!) and a three run homer from Jason Giambi.

The best case scenario here is that the team has hit on some rotational gold, here; that a sort of positive competition will evolve between the young starters and they’ll try to outdo each other, thus pushing them on to greater heights.

The A’s will bid to continue their winning streaks (could they reach four in a row??) against with a home set against the Orioles this weekend; Dallas Braden is going tonight, and he’s surely going to feel that this is a good time to lay down a mark at the beginning of the homestand. I’ll be there too!

Go A’s!