The Athletics are taking home the Tom Pollack Memorial Bridge Trophy thanks to an impressive 8-6 win over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum.
A's manager Mark Kotsay spoke with NBC Sports California's Brodie Brazil and Bip Roberts about what winning the Bay Bridge Series for the first time since 2020 means to his team.
"It's great. It's a great accomplishment for this team," Kotsay said on "A's Postgame Live." "As you said, we dropped the first two in San Fran. First game was a really tough one, second game they got us. It's great to come back and win a series against the Giants.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
"That's a quality baseball team over there, they're in the pennant race and for us to come out this weekend and show them that we've obviously improved. ... We've gotten better and better and we're more competitive. And it showed this weekend."
What's important to note as well is that for the second straight game, fans from both sides packed the Oakland Coliseum and showered their respective teams with support.
That energy the crowd gave the A's this weekend is not lost on Kotsay.
"It's been great," Kotsay continued. "These last two games with the support we've gotten, the A's fans coming out and getting behind this team, this young team, supporting them, it builds their confidence and it's always great.
Athletics
"This coliseum, these fans, you can't say enough about them and as a player, as a manager, you just love to see them in the stands, you love the drummers in the outfield, and its been great, it's been a great two days."
One young player in particular that felt the roar of the A's crowd was shortstop Nick Allen. After only having one hit in his last 16 at-bats, Allen had perhaps the best offensive game of his young career, going 3-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI.
It was his first multi-homer game, and his three RBI are a career high.
"Yeah, I know recently I've been feeling pretty good at the plate, ready to hit and I think that just led to my first at-bat right there," Allen told Brazil and Roberts. "I was ready to hit, ready to get a good pitch to hit.
"He threw something in an area where I can put some damage to it and it happened. So I was pumped about that."
Allen wasn't the only one who showed out offensively Sunday -- rookie Zack Gelof and veteran Seth Brown each had three hits, with the former collecting the first three-hit game of his career.
The A's countered every run the Giants had, and Allen says it was "great" to beat them to take home The Bridge.
"I think anytime you get a win, it's big," Allen said. "But definitely against the Giants here, crosstown rivalry some people would say. But we just wanted to go out there, play some good baseball and we did today.
"So I think we're trending in the right direction and I love it."
For Kotsay, a lot of the success the A's had over the weekend was to be attributed to the fans in the stands that showed their support.
"Obviously it's a fun series, competitive series I think the guys feel that as well," Kotsay told reporters after the game. "There's tons of energy in these last two days in the stands which we love.
"These fans, when they come out and give their support, there's no better fans in baseball to play in front of and we showed them how much we've improved, that we're competitive, that we can compete on that level today."
RELATED: Lively crowd fuels A's in Bay Bridge Series win vs. Giants
With Oakland picking up its 32nd win of the 2023 MLB season, a series win against the Giants potentially could help kickstart the young players' development moving forward.
And if that's the case, the A's can take solace in the fact that a Bay Bridge Series win in front of a passionate crowd helped them get there in the first place.