While the Oakland A’s continue to lead the AL West, the team has hit a bit of a lull or wall in their play. The team has had a nice balance of strong offensive power and fantastic pitching to build one of the best records in baseball.

However, the offense has hit a bump in the road over the past few weeks with what looks like one or two break out games a week, only to revert back to a team that struggles to score three runs a game. While the starting rotation has been very strong overall, there are concerns about Sonny Gray and Jesse Chavez hitting the proverbial wall. Both starters are in their first full season and you never know if a SP can withstand the long grind of a full season until they get the opportunity.

With all of that said, the A’s are still 42-27 and have a 4 game lead in the AL West pending tonight’s game between the Angels and Braves. The schedule doesn’t do the team many favors this week with two tough opponents visiting the Coliseum.

First up will be a disappointing Texas Rangers club.

The Rangers have one of the worst pitching staffs in the league – ranked 30th in the league in Quality Starts, WHIP, and Batting Average Against, while they are 27th in the league in team ERA. All of this is despite a very strong season thus far from Yu Darvish, who is 7-2 with an ERA of 2.11 and has 101 strikeouts already on the season.

Unfortunately for the A’s, they will see Darvish’s spot it the rotation and it happens to come against their own 5th starter. While the Athletics have gotten to Darvish this season, it is a tough match-up in the middle of the week. Here are the pitching match-ups and start times for the three game series:

Monday, 6/16 vs. Texas, 7:05pm, Colby Lewis (4-4) vs. Drew Pomeranz (5-3)

Tuesday, 6/17 vs. Texas, 7:05pm, Yu Darvish (7-2) vs. Tommy Milone (4-3)

Wednesday, 6/18 vs. Texas, 12:35pm, Nick Tepesch (2-2) vs. Sonny Gray (6-3)

Predictions: The A’s do a pretty good job of winning series against teams they should beat. Texas falls into that category this season, so look for the A’s to win two of three.

Next in town for the Athletics will be the Boston Red Sox. The Sox took two of three from the A’s back in the beginning of May during a weekend series in Boston. Heading into the week the Red Sox are seven games under .500 and are struggling to keep pace in the AL East. Prior to this weekend’s series against the Indians, the Red Sox had lost seven of nine and it was beginning to look a little grim for the club. With the Twins on tap to begin the week for Boston, they have a great opportunity to “get hot”.

Here are the announced pitching match-ups for the weekend series thus far, with the Red Sox yet to announce starters for Friday or Saturday’s games:

Thursday, 6/19 vs. Boston, 7:05pm, Jake Peavy (1-4) vs. Scott Kazmir (8-2)

Friday, 6/20 vs. Boston, 7:05pm, TBD (X-X) vs. Jesse Chavez (6-4)

Saturday, 6/21 vs. Boston, 1:05pm, TBD (X-X) vs. Drew Pomeranz (5-3)

Sunday, 6/22 vs. Boston, 1:05pm, Jon Lester (7-7) vs. Tommy Milone (4-3)

Predictions: The A’s should be able to take advantage of the Red Sox travel needs and jump on a favorable pitching match-up in games one and two. They will just need to find a way to take one of the afternoon games over the weekend to win the series.

Who’s Hot?

Yoenis Cespedes is doing it on both sides of the diamond right now. He is hitting well north of .300 over the past two weeks and has 8 assists in the outfield in less than three weeks and nine total to lead all of MLB. In case you missed it, here is the early contender for defensive play of the year from Cespedes against the Angels from earlier this week:

Stephen Vogt was the only other Athletic to hit well against the Angels earlier this week and had an above average series against the Yankees when in the lineup.

The A’s haven’t lost with Scott Kazmir on the mound since 5/23 against Toronto. Kazmir is 3-0 in four starts and has dropped his ERA down to 2.05. Two additional LHP’s out of the A’s bullpen have also been solid in recent weeks: Sean Doolittle and Fernando Abad.

Who’s Not?

Going into Sunday’s game Josh Donaldson was 0 for his last 31. So Sunday’s 1-4 was an improvement, but nowhere near what Donaldson had been doing in the lineup in April and May. John Jaso hasn’t fared much better over the past week. Jaso sat out of Sunday’s game and has been hitting under .100 over the past seven days. Jed Lowrie took an 0-4 in Sunday’s game despite the team putting up 10 runs against the Yankees, dropping his batting average to .224 on the season.

A’s Roster Movement

The team put Alberto Callaspo on the paternity list heading into this past weekend’s series with the Yankees and recalled Andy Parrino from the minors. Look for Callaspo to rejoin the club this week.

This past week the A’s agreed to terms with the vast majority of their MLB Draft picks and assigned them to their minor league affiliates.