The Oakland A's magical 2012 season continued with a three game sweep of the Boston Red Sox over the weekend. Not only did they win all three games, they completely dominated the visiting Red Sox winning the three games by a combined score of 33-5. The sweep brings the A's winning streak to nine games and their season record to 76-57.
The A's kicked off the series with Boston on Friday, August 31st, in impressive fashion. Former Red Sox players, Josh Reddick and Brandon Moss, combined for 6 hits, 2 homeruns, and 8 RBI in the 20-2 pounding of their former team. On the mound, Brandon McCarthy was solid only allowing 2 runs in 6.1 innings. The A's need McCarthy to stay healthy and continue pitching well as they make a push for the playoffs.
A.J. Griffin took the mound against the Red Sox in the second game of the series and pitched 7 stellar innings allowing only one run. Griffin was making his first start in about a month, but he looked very comfortable and lowered his ERA to 2.26 on the season. The emergence of Griffin has been just one of many pleasant surprises for Oakland this year.
Oakland finished off the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon behind another stellar performance by Brett Anderson. Since returning from the DL, Anderson has been lights out. In his three starts he has pitched a total of 20 innings and only allowed two runs while striking out 15. The A's have won all three of Anderson's starts this year. Getting Anderson back just in time for the stretch run makes the already strong A's staff even better.
The sweep of the Red Sox and 9 game winning streak give the A's a lot of momentum heading into a big series with the Angels. Oakland finds itself only three games behind the Texas Rangers in the AL West and on top of the AL Wild Card race. The A's are currently 5.5 games ahead of the Angels and will face their interstate rival 7 times in their next 10 games. With only 29 games remaining, a series win against the Angels will put the A's in a great position moving forward.
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*Daniel became an Oakland A's fan during the Bash Brothers era of the late 1980s. He has followed the A's and Major League Baseball for over 20 years. Daniel is currently a Featured Contributor on the Yahoo! Contributor Network.
