WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The result of this afternoon’s game had a heftier weight on the pendulum. 

If victorious, the Orioles would head back to the East Coast winners of two straight series out west and five of six games overall. Couple that with a sweep of the White Sox, and that’s eight of nine. With Jordan Westburg and Cedric Mullins potentially joining a team on a scorching hot streak next week, everything would be coming up Birds.

An impressive sweep of the Mariners bookended by taking care of business against the White Sox and Athletics. That's closing in on "we're so back" territory.  

A 5-1 loss, however, felt monumentally different. 

Entering a fresh series against the Orioles, the Athletics had lost 20 of their previous 22 games. Their rough stretch indicated the possibility that Baltimore could continue to gain some ground in the standings. 

That’s not what happened this weekend, and the O’s are still in search of some answers. A 4-2 road trip is a positive, but it didn't exactly end on a high note. 

Once again, they didn’t get off to the best start.  

On Friday night, seven runs were scored in the first three frames. Last night, there were five runs after the first. In this afternoon’s contest, the O’s and A’s matched that-five run benchmark in two innings instead of one. 

It was the same 4-1 Athletics advantage. 

Singles and small ball got the A’s in the run column in the bottom of the first. And in the second, they added on more, thanks in large part to some poor Baltimore defense. 

Jhonny Pereda’s RBI double put the Athletics in front 2-1, but they weren’t done there. Denzel Clarke pushed him to third thanks to an Emmanuel Rivera error (later changed to a hit) at first base, and Pereda later scored on an error from shortstop Gunnar Henderson. Jacob Wilson singled, as he’s known to do, and just like that it was 4-1, the same deficit that the O’s faced in the first inning of last night’s game. 

Tomoyuki Sugano fits into the pitch-to-contact archetype. He won’t overwhelm hitters with velocity, but is able to locate well and induce weak contact and outs. That’s difficult to do effectively when the defense doesn’t help you out, but there was plenty of hard contact mixed in there, too. 

“I was mainly trying to get groundouts, but [they] became hits, and they were hitting it pretty well, so I struggled a little bit at the beginning," Sugano said after the game. 

The veteran settled in after a rough first two innings, but his outing was short-lived. Just over four innings of work was his shortest start of the season outside of his major league debut, a game in which he left early due to cramping. Eight hits matched a career high, as did four runs, although only three were earned. 

On the other side of the ball, the Orioles’ struggles against left-handed pitching reared their ugly head yet again. A’s starter Jacob Lopez, who entered the contest with an ERA of 7.20, lowered that figure to 6.00 after four innings without an earned run. Sean Newcomb, another lefty, entered with his earned run figure just North of 4.00, and left with it at 3.78.

"The story’s just left-handed pitching again," Tony Mansolino said postgame. "Left-handed pitching got us. We’ve got to figure it out. We know the hitting guys, the players, everyone’s working on it hard. There’s probably some solutions down the pipeline, too. I think everyone’s aware of that as well. Just another game where we’ve seen left-handed pitching that shouldn’t beat us up did beat us up. We’ve got to be better."

There were, at least, a few positives to take away. 

Coby Mayo put together one of the best at-bats of his young career in the top of the fourth inning. A nine-pitch at-bat with four fall balls resulted in a 103.5 mph single up the middle. He followed it up with a steal of second, his first stolen bag in the majors. The O’s couldn’t bring him home, however. 

"Just trying to put good at-bats together every single day," Mayo said. "Obviously, that one happened to turn out longer. Just trying to find a good pitch to hit."

The imminent return of Westburg and Mullins, plus the returns of Tyler O'Neill and Gary Sánchez down the line, make Mayo's big league job security a bit murky. Mayo is doing his best to be where his feet are. 

"There’s a lot of really good players on this team," he said. "I don’t really know exactly what’s going to be happening in the next few days. If it is me staying here, then I’m going to do everything I can to put a good product on the field. Mounty’s a heck of a player and I’m really bummed to see him go down."

Part of Mayo's development is his work at first base, the position that Mountcastle now leaves partially vacant. 

"I probably lead the league in most ground balls taken out in early work," Mayo joked. "Manso obviously loves to go out there and work hard, and so do I. Obviously, first base isn’t my main position, but it’s kind of taken over right now as my main position, and I’m going to try to be the most prepared first baseman I can be when my name is called to play there."

With seemingly improved at-bats and defense at first, Mayo has been making a strong case to stay in the majors. 

"He’s trending in the right direction," Mansolino said. "I think everybody sees it. We’re really excited about Coby. I think he’s in a good place, mentally, and excited to watch him continue here in the major leagues."

Adley Rutschman had a nice day at the dish, too, collecting two hits and a walk to improve his line to .435/.500/.739 in the month of June, good for a 1.239 OPS with two home runs and just three strikeouts. 

The bullpen had a strong showing yet again, but unlike last night, the offense didn’t match their prowess. 

Mason Miller entered the game in the top of the ninth, and that was all she wrote. The offense did string together eight hits, but there were very few true threats. 

This takeaway from this game is twofold. On the one hand, the O's dropped two games against an A's team that came in scuffling. On the other, four wins in six games is a great record for a road trip overall. 

"You walk out of this thing 4-2 against a really good Seattle team and a Sacramento team, they play tough, man," Mansolino said. "They played really good. Those first three hitters were hard on us. 4-2, I’ll take it."

Now, a huge test awaits in the form of Detroit and their majors-leading 43 wins. A couple of key position players returning to the lineup would certainly help matters.