Elephant Rumblings: A’s win fourth straight series opener

Happy Wednesday, Athletics Nation!

The A’s celebrated the Fourth of July with a fourth of their own. Yesterday’s exciting extra innings win in Detroit marked the A’s fourth straight win in series opening games. The “streak” began on June 23 against the Blue Jays and has continued against the Yankees, White Sox, and Tigers.

Unfortunately, the A’s lost the second and third games in the first two of these four three-game series: only against the White Sox last weekend were the A’s able to take a series with a game two victory. And lest we forget, all of this has happened in the wake of a brutal eight game losing streak. But a many of those games were close, and generally, the A’s seem to be more competitive than they were through the utterly dismal months of April and May.

Today, the A’s have an opportunity to clinch a second straight series win today with a struggling-of-late Ken Waldichuk on the mound against the Tigers’ Eduardo Rodriguez, who has posted an impressive 2.13 ERA through 11 starts this season.

Waldo’s last two “starts” were actually opening gigs. Apparently, he’s headlining on the mound today, potentially behind another opening act.

It would be great to see Waldichuk take inspiration from the gem spun by teammate JP Sears yesterday, get back in the saddle, and take command to give the A’s a chance to win. I’d guess the A’s will also need more than two hits to prevail today. Let’s go, Oakland!

A’s Coverage:

• Willis: JP Sears dazzles as A’s clip Tigers 1-0 in 10 innings
• Willis: Athletics reinstate Manny Piña from injured list, recall Nick Allen
• Gallegos: Seeing double: Carlos Pérez brothers face off
• McDonald: Athletics Designate Chad Smith For Assignment
• Gallegos: Sears’ career-best outing the ‘definition of how to pitch’

MLB News & Interest:

• McDonald: Tigers Reinstate Tarik Skubal, Place Tyler Alexander On 60-Day IL
• Rome: Astros’ Jose Altuve scratched from lineup Tuesday with left oblique discomfort: How Houston adjusts ($)
• Kirschner: Aaron Judge rules out in-season surgery, starts light hitting: Where New York slugger is in rehab process ($)
• MLB: J-Rod, Kirby, Wander, Tucker, Bednar added to All-Star squads
• Deeds: Dustin May To Undergo Season-Ending Flexor Tendon Surgery
• Kleinschmidt: Clayton Kershaw’s All-Star replacement gives gift of beer
• McDonald: Blue Jays To Recall Alek Manoah For Friday Start
• McDonald: Padres Designate Nelson Cruz For Assignment
• McDonald: Angels Place Mike Trout On IL With Hamate Fracture
• Today in Baseball History

Best of Twitter:

Remembering Rickey’s Independence Day slam.

Let’s see if Nick can hang onto a big league spot this time up.

Perez celebrates with an inside-the-parker.