Oakland Athletics: A's Find a Way to Do a 180 in a Single Week

Last week I pleaded with the A's to do something, anything, to jump start their team. I begged the team to clean house from the front office to the management, to the on-field personnel. Did they listen?

No.

I have to say I'm a bit glad they didn't.

After an atrocious week that saw the A's lose five straight to the Twins and Giants, this most recent completed week didn't begin any better, with a close loss to the Angels.

Since last Monday, the A's have played as a completely different team.

They went 5-1, back to the familiar .500 mark and finally, finally a little something to give hope to the Green and Gold faithful.

Clutch hitting.

Such a word rarely could be uttered around the A's clubhouse this season. But over the past week, timely hitting has been the story.

Twelve, count 'em, 12 runs scored with two outs by the A's versus the Orioles. You know what that means? Hits, hits and more hits. No more runs driven in with double plays, ground outs and sac flies. Real honest-to-God singles, doubles and homers with two outs. This is the stuff dreams are made of. Okay, maybe that's a bit overboard, but come on, its been a while for the A's.

The starting pitching was good, if not great, and fill-in starters Josh Outman and Guillermo Moscoso combined to go 3-0 in 24 innings while allowing only seven runs. Are they a long term solution? Probably not, as hopefully Brandon McCarthy and Ross will return by the middle of June. But if they can pitch semi-effectively, it will go a long way to help the A's.

Sunday's game in particular was a tremendous boost to the A's. Not only did they rally from a three-run deficit to score four two-out runs and win, 6-4, but they also saw the return of Andrew Bailey, albeit in a middle relief role. He pitched a quick one-two-three inning and the A's bullpen pitched four scoreless to give Moscoso a win.

Josh Willingham, hammer that he is, is really starting to hit. He cracked his ninth homer of the year Sunday and knocked in a foursome of runs. He's now on pace to drive in over 100 runs this season, something the A's haven't had since Frank Thomas in 2006.

All in all, things appear to be finally turning the A's way, maybe.

On a side note, I still don't trust Bob Geren, but the way it looks, he won't be on his way out the door anytime soon.

They've got a really tough week with games against the Yankees and the Red Sox, a 4-2 record this week, and then we can look to the future.