As for the game, the 5-2 victory tonight boiled down to four big contributors; Dan Straily, Brandon Moss, John Jaso, and 9 walks.

June 12, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics first baseman Brandon Moss (37) rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the New York Yankees during the eighth inning at O.co Coliseum. The Oakland Athletics defeated the New York Yankees 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Dan Straily seems to have figured something out, he’s put together a very solid string of starts and continued that string today.  Straily allowed just 1 hit through the first 5 innings tonight, and only one other Yankee reached base on a first inning error by Eric Sogard.  Straily would stumble a little bit in the 6th while allowing a walk and a single to set up Mark Teixeira‘s sacrifice fly to get the Yankees on the board.  He would allow a second run in the 7th inning and would have to yield to Sean Doolittle for the final out of the inning.  Straily pitched 6.2 innings overall, allowed just 3 hits and those 2 ER, he walked only 1 and struck out 3.

Sean Doolittle had his second straight good outing, this time recording 4 outs without allowing a single baserunner.  Grant Balfour notched his 17th save of the season, and his 35th straight dating back to last year.

The offense was fueled primarily by the longball courtesy of Brandon Moss.  He’s been struggling badly as of late, but when he makes solid contact the ball has left the yard each time.  He’s now 5 for his last 40 and each of those 5 hits are home runs.  Moss now has 11 on the season.  John Jaso also contributed 2 RBI with a double in the 5th and a single in the 8th.  The A’s played a lot of “lawyerball” tonight against Yankees starter Phil Hughes and the rest of the Yankees staff, drawing a total of 9 walks.  Only 1 of those walks ended up scoring, but their patience enabled them to get Hughes out of the game and further tax their bullpen.

With this win the A’s are now 40-27, their best start through 67 games since 1990 when they last went to the World Series.  Most importantly though, with the Texas Rangers loss to the Cleveland Indians they are now back in sole possession of first place in the AL West.  I have a feeling this battle for division supremacy will go back and forth like this for the duration of the season.

The A’s have also won the season series versus the Yankees for the first time since 2007, and have the opportunity to sweep them in Oakland for the second straight series tomorrow.  It won’t be easy though as Jarrod Parker (5-6, 4.65 ERA) takes on Hiroki Kuroda (6-5, 2.84 ERA) tomorrow afternoon.  The Rangers are idle tomorrow, so a win will not only sweep the series but give the A’s an extra half game cushion in the AL West.

May 10, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Dan Straily (67) pitches to the Seattle Mariners during the game at Safeco FIeld. Seattle defeated Oakland 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Dan Straily will face the White Sox in game one as the A’s start a four-game set in Chicago Thursday. The young phenom struggled mightily in his first few starts after getting called up but has found a way to get back on track. Straily has dominated opponents as of late; he is 2-0 with an 0.95 ERA and has 14 strikeouts in has last three starts. His last start came on Saturday against the White Sox when he threw six innings of one-run baseball and struck out eight.

Jose Quintana, who opposed Straily on Saturday as well, will try to get revenge on Thursday. In Quintana’s last start (against Oakland), he only lasted 5.1 innings and allowed three runs on ten hits and fortunately ended up with a no-decision. In his last three starts, he is 1-1 with a 3.57 ERA and 14 punch-outs.

DownSide: Right now, there isn’t much of one so lets just ignore it.

UpSide: The A’s are pitching well and winning games. Oh yeah, and Josh Reddick has been doing quite well since returning from the DL.

FanSide: Lets go Oakland!

Probable Starters 

Friday, June 7, 5:10 PM PDT

Jarrod Parker (4-6, 4.90 ERA) vs. Chris Sale (5-3, 2.44 ERA)

Saturday, June 8, 1:10 PM PDT

Tommy Milone (6-5 3.91 ERA) vs. John Danks (0-2, 5.63 ERA)

Sunday, June 9, 11:10 PM PDT

A.J. Griffin (5-4, 3.67 ERA) vs. Hector Santiago (1-4, 3.35 ERA)

Jun 1, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics outfielder Coco Crisp (4) smiles after throwing a whip cream pie in the face of outfielder Josh Reddick (16) after Reddick drew a bases loaded walk in the tenth inning to defeat the Chicago White Sox 4-3 at O.Co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Upon returning home the A’s took the first of three from the Texas Rangers, but lost the final two games of the series for their third straight series defeat.  Things were looking bleak, and the Athletics had slumped to 20-22 after bolting out to a 12-4 start.  Then things changed.

The Kansas City Royals were coming to town, and they were bringing a couple of A’s killers with them.  James Shields and Ervin Santana have had a lot of success against the Athletics over the years, but the A’s were able to take them down en route to a sweep of the Royals during the weekend series at O.co.  Maybe something clicked with them, or maybe it was the power of the swine as Bacon Friday had been celebrated on May 17th.  The Athletics had gotten themselves back over the .500 mark and were about to set forth on a run that would ultimately see them reaching new heights for 2013.

Trips to Arlington usually come with devastating losses and mountains of frustration for the Athletics.  Perhaps the demons of Arlington were exorcised last season as the A’s ran down the Rangers to take the AL West title.  Perhaps the Athletics are now just more experienced in dealing with tough environments.  Either way, they took the series, beating Yu Darvish in the process.  Another sweep of the Houston Astros would follow.

The A’s would return to the Bay Area to take on the cross bay rival San Francisco Giants in aa 4 game home and home series.  The A’s would outclass the Giants by taking 3 of the 4 games.  Then came the White Sox, a talented but mightily underachieving team that ranks near the bottom of just about every offensive category in the AL.  The A’s swept them right out of Oakland, allowing a grand total of 3 runs in the process.

Now the Athletics sit at 34-24, a season high 10 games over .500, and are just 2 games behind the Texas Rangers in the AL West.  The two teams have now separated themselves from the rest of the division, with 8.5 games now separating the A’s in second place and the third place Los Angeles Angels.

What is behind this turnaround?  Pitching, pitching, pitching.  What was thought to be the strength of this team coming into the season had been something of a disappointment in the early going, even when they were winning.  Then the offense sputtered, causing the losses to build.  Now the pitching staff has regained its proper form, and the wins are piling up.

The renaissance of Jarrod Parker, the development of Dan Straily, and the ageless wonder that is Bartolo Colon have been huge for the Athletics.  Getting healthy as well has played a big role in the turnaround.  The lineups lacking Coco Crisp, Yoenis Cespedes, and even the struggling Josh Reddick were not indicative of a playoff contender, now that they are all back in the fold the team can pick up where it left off in April.

The contributions of Josh Donaldson cannot be understated either, he’s playing at an All Star level.  The hot corner is as solidified as it has been since the prime years of Eric Chavez.

The first half of the month of June is much easier than the latter half when a four game series in Arlington and visits to Oakland from the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds await.  The A’s will have to continue playing high level baseball versus the lesser opponents they will see early in the month in order to weather the storm near the end of the month.

I said before that the A’s had set themselves up for success early on, and it’s a good thing they did because it gave them a cushion to deal with the tough times that would lie ahead.  The A’s are known for being a second half team, so if they can maintain a good record through the first half then the team could really take off come summertime.  Things are looking way up for the green and gold, and we could be in for one heck of a summer, and hopefully an even better fall.