Zack Gelof nearly hits for cycle in Athletics second straight victory

The Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers 7-1 this afternoon for their second win in as many days, capturing their first series victory of the year.

Starter Joe Boyle was sharp, throwing 5 scoreless innings while allowing 2 hits and notching 6 strikeouts. He did allow 3 walks but overall, it was a strong outing for the young righty.

Boyle had fallen apart a bit lately, getting crushed in his first outing against the Red Sox and even going back into spring training, had not had an extended run of success.

At the very least, today's effort is a good jumping off point as Boyle looks to cement himself in the A's rotation moving forward.

Second baseman Zack Gelof had four hits on the day, falling a double shy of hitting for the cycle. Gelof tripled in the first inning, bringing Abraham Toro around to score and giving the A's an early lead.

He then hit a three-run homer in the second to put the A's up 5-0 and they never looked back. Toro, JJ Bleday, Seth Brown, and Lawrence Butler all had multi-hit performances en route to the victory.

On the sour side, outfielder Brent Rooker was removed from today's game due to abdominal soreness. It's unclear at the moment whether Rooker will miss any time due to the issue.

If Rooker were to end up on the IL, we'd have to assume that Esteury Ruiz would get called back up. Last year's standout has been raking in Triple-A since his demotion last week and the other options, including Tyler Soderstrom, Jordan Diaz, and Lazaro Armenteros, don't make as much sense as Ruiz.

Although to be fair, the A's have made a number of recent moves that haven't totally made sense, so it's probably not wise to put it past David Forst to bring Soderstrom up for a couple weeks. We'll keep an eye on Rooker's injury status and update as necessary.

The Athletics get the day off tomorrow while they travel to Arlington to prepare for a three game set against the Rangers. Alex Wood is lined up to pitch on Tuesday, followed by Ross Stripling and JP Sears.

The reigning World Series champs should prove to be a tough opponent. As it stands, they'll likely line up with Nathan Eovaldi on the mound Tuesday, with Cody Bradford on Wednesday and Jon Gray on Thursday.

The Rangers will enter the upcoming series at 6-2, pending the results of the Sunday night game. The A's improved to 3-7 with today's win.