By Morris Phillips

The A’s could have been full of themselves after sweeping the Angels and increasing their lead in the AL West to 4 ½ games, but instead, they chilled.
And quietly got ready for their road trip back east to see the Yankees and the Orioles.

“We’re best about just individualizing the day, not worried about what happened the day before and give our total effort on a particular day. That’s more our philosophy,” manager Bob Melvin said when asked about the similar subjects of having, gaining or riding momentum.

But while the team with the best record in baseball since Opening Day 2012, and the best record in the American League this season goes about its business, their accomplishments speak for themselves. The A’s have their best season start since 1991 (35-22) after sweeping a MLB-best sixth opponent this season. And the Angels weren’t struggling upon entering the O.co Coliseum on Friday: Anaheim had won 14 of 20 coming in.

Statistically, the A’s couldn’t possibly be more imposing having scored the most runs in baseball (290, better than five runs a game) while its pitching staff has posted a big-league low 2.93 ERA.

And career-long nemesis Jered Weaver stepped to the mound on Sunday with an 8-1 record and 0.87 ERA in his last 11 starts against Oakland, but after cruising through the first two frames, got hit hard in the third. Weaver would surrender 11 hits, six runs while only striking out two in an outing where he saw a lot of prepared, capable hitters in white uniforms.

The A’s as self-assured, front-runners? Yeah, get used to it.

“Obviously, we wish we could’ve played a little bit better,” Weaver said. “As a pitching staff, we know we’re a lot better than what we showed this weekend. Next time we see these guys, I’m pretty sure they’re going to see a different team.”

“We beat them in different fashions,” Melvin recounted. “The first time we swung it pretty good, and then we come back the next night and really added on runs, where at times we have trouble with that. Today was just kind of a clean, well-played baseball game.”

Sonny Gray was a big part of the A’s elite look on Sunday. The gem of the current Oakland rotation wasn’t great, but he was plenty competitive, riding the early 4-0 lead afforded him, then limiting damage before disaster could strike in the fifth. After that, Gray got the A’s into the seventh where the best of a good Oakland bullpen handled the rest.

“Even when you get guys on base and you score some runs, he always finds a way to limit the damage,” Melvin explained when quizzed about Gray. “He never really gives up that big inning.”

Offensively, Josh Donaldson led the way with healthy swing of support from Jed Lowrie. Donaldson had a two-run single in the third, and Lowrie added a RBI single later in the third, and then he hit a solo shot off of Weaver in the fifth to put the A’s up 5-2.

The A’s open a three-game series at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday where Scott Kazmir will face New York’s Hiroki Kuroda.