By Morris Phillips

Quite clearly the A’s are making news off the field, as well as on, this holiday weekend.

Having pulled the big trade to acquire a front-line starter in Jeff Samardzija as well as Jason Hammel, who will also step into the A’s rotation, the A’s have the attention of the baseball world with their MLB-best record and brash trade for a pair of pitchers that make them the favorites to capture the AL pennant.

And while all the pundits assess and dissect the trade, the A’s haven’t missed a beat on the diamond, beating the Blue Jays for the third straight day, 5-1 at the O.co Coliseum.

In beating the AL East leaders the A’s looked the part, getting a stellar start from Scott Kazmir, a critical home run off the Jays’ best starter, Mark Buehrle, and a pair of outstanding defensive plays to boot. After a few ragged outings over the last 10 days, this may have been the A’s best played game in recent memory.

With the Blue Jays leading 1-0 early, the tenor of the game changed when Toronto first basemen and prolific home run hitter Edwin Encarnacion was injured trying to beat a throw running to first base. Encarnacion ranks second in all of baseball with 26 home runs, and his quad injury will mean that total will sit for a while with a stint on the disabled list likely.

After that, the A’s began to solve the 10-game winner Buehrle, who nearly allowed a grand slam to Coco Crisp on what would instead become the final out of the second inning caught on the warning track. In the third, Josh Donaldson touched Buehrle with a prodigious shot over the center field wall to tie it. It was just Donaldson’s second home run in his previous 24 games.

The A’s took control with a pair of runs in the fourth and two more in the eighth. Kazmir and the bullpen did the rest with the veteran striking out eight batters and allowing just three hits. Luke Gregerson and Fernando Abad came out the bullpen to shut the door in the eighth and ninth.

The A’s improved to 54-33, tying their season-best 21 games over .500 and equaling the ’72 A’s for the fourth best 87-game start to a season in Oakland history. The Angels and Mariners also won on Saturday to remain 3 ½ and 6 games behind the A’s in the AL West.

The A’s turned in a pair of defensive gems with left fielder Craig Gentry and shortstop Jed Lowrie combining on a relay to the plate that chopped down Melky Cabrera trying to score on Joey Bautista’s double. Instant replay got involved in the bang-bang play but the video crew in New York upheld the ruling on the field saying the replay didn’t provide conclusive evidence to justify overturning home plate umpire Bill Miller’s call.

The Blue Jays, most notably Bautista, strong objected to ruling in support of Miller’s initial call, with the outfielder saying, “It’s pretty frustrating for you to battle as a team, keep the game close, for our pitchers to be doing what they’re doing, for us to keep grinding three games and facing tough pitching, and somehow be able to get an opportunity to tie the game in the eighth inning and it all goes down the drain because somebody first initially made a bad call to begin with, and then it gets upheld by God knows who in some room in New York.”

Earlier in the same inning, Josh Donaldson recorded the first out by running full speed into the rolled up tarp in foul ground and catching Munenori Kawasaki’s foul pop as he impacted the tarp.

Samardzija flew into the Bay Area on Saturday, immediately came to the ballpark and soon found out that his first appearance as an Athletic will come in Sunday’s series finale. The 29-year old who dabbled in football at Notre Dame as an All-American and NFL prospect says he shouldn’t be too nervous.

“This is what I do,” Samardzija said. “I haven’t changed teams, I haven’t played here, all those boxes are checked. But it’s the same distance to home plate, it’s the same 90 feet to all the bases. And the way I look at it is I’ve just added a sense of excitement into what I do every fifth day with where this team is at and how it’s been playing.”

Manager Bob Melvin spoke before the game, and praised GM Billy Beane for not only pulling off the big trade but doing it well in advance of the July 31 trade deadline. Melvin opined on what fans can expect from Samardzija.

“Not only is he a good arm, but from what I understand he’s quite the competitor, has that football mentality, takes that mentality out there on the mound,” Melvin said. “And anytime you have that presence on the mound on top of the stuff he brings, guys feel good about it.”