"Precisely one month from what was surely the ugliest outing of his pitching life, Ben Sheets not only recorded his first victory with the A's but also his first major league win since Sept. 6, 2008.

On Thursday night, Sheets looked another step closer to his former four-time All-Star self in a 6-2 A's victory over the Baltimore Orioles at the Oakland Coliseum.

Back on March 15, Sheets faced 10 Cincinnati Reds hitters in a spring training game, surrendered eight hits, didn't record an out and all 10 runners ultimately scored. At the time, some may have questioned the wisdom of the A's $10 million offseason investment.

Consider that nightmare performance irrelevant history now.

Sheets, who missed the entire 2009 season after elbow surgery, has pitched solidly since that March 15 debacle. He allowed just one earned run in each of his final two spring appearances and followed up by allowing two earned runs in his opening night start and three in his second outing, both no-decisions.

"I was just setting 'em up, man," Sheets, 31, said with a grin. "Hey, those things happen. Pitchers have bad outings. My whole spring was skewed by that outing. I could have dominated every other game and my numbers still wouldn't have looked good, but I thought I threw the ball fine in spring.""