The Oakland Athletics bullpen pitched three shutout innings in a 5-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Friday. Starting pitcher Sonny Gray earned the loss giving up five runs off five hits during six innings of work. However, Dan Otero had three strikeouts in the seventh, Fernando Abad only gave up one hit in the eighth and Fernando Rodriguez had two strikeouts in the ninth.

John Hickey from Inside the A’s writes about how after the three shutout innings, the bullpen is showing signs of progress.

“The last four weeks or so have been good for the Oakland pen. In 21 games, the relievers have allowed one or zero runs 17 times. Since the A’s bottomed out at 16 games under .500 with a loss on May 22 at which the bullpen ERA was 4.82, the relief corps has a 3.36 ERA while Oakland has a 27-21 record.”

Friday was Otero's first appearance for Oakland since June 4. He was with the team's Triple-A (Nashville) affilate until Sunday. Hickey touched on the importance of Otero in the A’s bullpen.

“It was good to get [Otero] back out there,’’ manager Bob Melvin said “It looked like he had some backdoor sink working a little bit. He threw a curveball for a strikeout. It’s always nice to have him here, because he can be a very productive guy for us.’’

Injuries to the A’s pitching staff hurt them in the first half of the season, but if the bullpen can continue to progress, that will be one of the keys to turning the season around for Oakland.