Last week on the Oakland Futility Watch, we pointed out how the Athletics were getting better, month to month. The team had five wins in April and six in May, and with that improvement pace projected over the course of the season, maybe the A’s had a chance to avoid infamy by October. Well, color us shocked, as the team starting winning a lot suddenly: Oakland has won five straight, and it swept Milwaukee on the road!

That’s the A’s first sweep of the 2023 season, and the W5 blows the previous best (W2) out of the water. With a 17-50 record currently, Oakland is on pace to win … drumroll, please … 41 games. But the improvement is the key, as we focused on last week (or tried to). The A’s already have five wins this month, and it’s only June 12. Chances are the team will reach at least two more victories before July rolls around, ever progressing.

And that is the key, of course: growth and improvement for a roster that has little high-shelf talent on it. With the W5, the A’s have pulled even with their Pythagorean projection for the season so far. That’s a positive for Manager Mark Kotsay. Oakland is doing decently enough in one-run games with a 9-11 record, but we know it’s the pitching that has been the biggest problem for the A’s this year, for the most part.

During this modest winning streak, the Oakland pitchers have given up just 16 runs, which is amounts to 3.2 runs per game. Compare that to the season’s current ERA (6.39), and you can see that the A’s aren’t that bad if they can get some better pitching. Cutting the opponent’s run production in half has a positive effect on any team’s winning percentage. Will this last? Certainly not, but it’s a good sign for now.

The team is still hitting just .224 with a terrible .666 OPS. That’s not even close to mediocre on its own. Yet again, the A’s have scored 35 in this winning streak, so there’s that. Oakland returns home tonight to host the Tampa Bay Rays (48-20) for four straight, so we can expect the team to take it on the chin here for the next few days, for sure. We will be there on Thursday to report back next week with good intel. We promise.

But consider this: the A’s are 4-23 against the other teams in the AL West, and they are somehow just 4-18 against other teams with losing records (.182 winning percentage). That’s odd, as Oakland has a 13-32 record against teams with winning records (.289). Seems like the A’s do better against better teams, and that means focus is needed, and that’s where Kotsay needs to continue his focus as a manager. His job is clear: teach!

There’s hope for this squad to avoid historical ugliness. Let’s see how it unfolds then, week by week.