by Charlie O Mallonee

DETROIT–The three game win streak that the A’s picked up is a great thing it was the first series win for Oakland since May when they took two out of three from Texas. That’s a long time between series wins and they did it again on Tuesday night winning the first of three games in Detroit with a win 5-3.

The A’s had won six of their last nine ball games and things are on the positive the A’s jumped to a 5-3 lead when Ben Zobrist hit a grand slam home run off of Tiger pitcher Alfredo Simon at Comerica Park on Tuesday night which wound up being the final score. The A’s have won four of their last five games.

The A’s are 13-25 over their last 37 games remember they started out 8-8 the season and 20-33 overall now that’s the worst in the American League. They have won four out their last six, their in the cellar in the AL West with 12.5 games off the lead. They’ve been 25 days in the cellar.

Right now it’s not about getting into first place I really believe right now the goal for the A’s has to be get to .500. If they can get to .500 then there’s a lot of opportunities and if they get to .500 their not going to be as quick to break up the team. If this team gets into late July when the trade deadline comes up as their still looking at a record as they have right now there’s going to be some players that some A’s fans like their going to be gone.

So it’s really important for the A’s to keep themselves together to keep competitive in the AL West and keep the fans interested to make their goal “let’s get back to .500”. The starting pitching for the A’s all season long has been the shining star for the Oakland A’s. There 5-2 in their last nine games they have a 1.23 ERA which every team in MLB would love to have from their starting pitchers.

The starters for the season have an ERA of 3.19 which is the best in the AL and you ask the question why are they 20-33? The don’t have the number one relief core that is part of the problem. Right now the A’s are third in innings pitched by their starters. They have gone into Tuesday night’s game 316 innings pitched by their starters.

Join Charlie O and his A’s podcast commentary below heard weekly at http://www.sportsradioservice.com