For weeks, the A’s had been scuffling their way to the All-Star break. They fell out of first place in the American League West, went winless in six consecutive series and struggled to pair their strong pitching with a consistent offensive attack.

“We’ve been a little up and down,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said, reflecting on the season’s first half. “We got off to a slow start, then we had a terrific run, and then we were pretty consistent and then we’ve fallen off here. I think from the Yankees’ series [from June 18-20] until now, we’ve kind of not played great for a sustained period.”

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This weekend, though, Oakland powered its way to a series win over Texas ahead of a spree of four much-needed off-days. After bashing four homers on Saturday, the A’s hit four more in Sunday’s 4-1 victory at Globe Life Field.

Matt Olson -- who will represent the A’s in the Home Run Derby on Monday -- left the yard twice, while Chris Bassitt worked seven innings of four-hit, one-run ball.

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“It’s part of our personality,” Melvin said of his team’s home runs. “When you have a four-day break, you want to leave an impression. Hit some homers yesterday, we affected the game. Obviously, the homers today affected the game, as well. After a little bit of a tough stretch, we win two games to [enter] the break with a good feeling, and do it in the fashion that we’re used to doing it.”

Olson’s solo shots came in the fourth and sixth innings, bringing his pre-Derby total up to 23 (fourth in the AL). Prior to Olson teeing off, the A’s hit back-to-back homers in the second inning for a second consecutive day, this time courtesy of Jed Lowrie and Sean Murphy.

Bassitt, who was named to his first All-Star team on Saturday, came back strong after allowing six runs over 4 1/3 innings his last time out against the Astros. He had only three strikeouts against the Rangers, matching his season low, but he limited them to six hard-hit balls (out of 21 in play).

Even though Bassitt expects to pitch an inning in Tuesday’s All-Star Game -- "I’m just gonna treat it like a bullpen," he said -- one of the things he’s most looking forward to in the coming days is an opportunity to rest.

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And once Oakland’s schedule kicks back into gear on Friday, he’s excited to see the team strive toward what he believes is some untapped potential.

"Overall, I think we underachieved almost the whole first half," Bassitt said. "I thought our hitting was spotty, our pitching, at times, was spotty. Obviously, our record’s pretty good, but I think we can do a whole heck of a lot better."

Perhaps the series win over the Rangers is something to build off, but it hardly erases the A’s 8-13 slide of late. The good news? Reinforcements are coming, with leadoff hitter Mark Canha (left hip strain) expected back soon after the break. Mitch Moreland (undisclosed) could follow shortly thereafter.

Oh, and here’s some more good news: The A’s have proven to be a remarkable second-half team recently. Since 2018, Oakland is 104-61 (.630) in the latter half of the season, which led to a pair of Wild Card berths and an AL West title.

“Hopefully, we come out and, whatever that ‘second-half magic’ is we’ve had in the past, we keep it going,” Olson said.

No matter how a team fared pre-All-Star break, four days of rest in July is always a good time to hit the reset button. Grabbing a series win right before that hiatus might just mean the A’s started their reset a bit early, as grand expectations loom for their playoff push.

“We didn’t want to finish up in the fashion that we’d been playing, so I think when you win the last two games, you put that behind you and you have an expectation in the second half to play even better,” Melvin said. “Because that’s always our expectation.”