Ervin Santana carved up the A's like a Thanksgiving Turkey (Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE)

TURNING POINT:  The only serious trouble Santana got in was brought upon himself by losing his command in the top of the 6th inning.  With two outs Jemile Weeks singled and stole 2nd while Cliff Pennington ultimately worked a walk, then Josh Reddick walked to load the bases for Seth Smith, who chased a slider in the dirt to end the threat.  Cashing in on even 1 or 2 of those runners on would’ve put a lot of momentum in the A’s dugout and given them a fighting chance.  But the A’s left a goose egg in the run column, and Mike Trout‘s 7th inning homer pretty much sealed it for the Halos.

ON THE HILL:  Bartolo Colon‘s start could go in a baseball glossary for the term scattered hits, he gave up 12 tonight in 6.2 innings, with the Angels only cashing in 4 runs with all those base runners.  They were making contact pretty much the whole game, only striking out 3 times and not a single walk was issued by Colon.  He only threw 89 pitches, so it seems the Angels were swinging aggressively at Colon’s strikes.  Jerry Blevins finished off the 7th inning for Bartolo, retiring the only batter he faced.  Andrew Carignan had a solid rebound after his ugly first outing back in Oakland, issuing a walk but retiring the side in the 8th without much incident.

Bartolo Colon got knocked around a bit by his former squad. (Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE)

AT THE PLATE:  The A’s only mustered 5 hits against Ervin Santana and 2 relievers, so there wasn’t much to report from the green and gold with the sticks tonight.  Josh Reddick with 2 walks, and Cliff Pennington with a walk and a hit were the only A’s to reach base multiple times tonight, not exactly a recipe for success.  Jemile Weeks’ eternal 2012 battle with the Mendoza line continued as he managed 1 hit in his 4 at bats putting his AVG right at .200.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  For the 3rd straight series the A’s managed a split, it’s certainly better than losing the series, but the A’s would like to be able to shut down some of these opponents when they have the opportunity.  That’s something this team will have to develop as they continue this iteration of the rebuild.  The A’s move on during this whirlwind week and head to Arlington for 2 against the AL West juggernaut Texas Rangers.  They’ll be greeted by the Japanese phenomenon Yu Darvish (5-1, 2.84 ERA) tomorrow night, the A’s will counter with the soft tossing “cool as a cucumber” Tommy Milone (5-2, 3.92 ERA).  Darvish has something like 25 different pitches he can use, and you can bet your bottom dollar he’ll be painting the corners with his various colors.  The A’s will have to be aggressive and swing hard at the very few pitches he will give them to hit, try to fight off the nasty ones, and hope to get Darvish out of the game as soon as possible if they have any hope of taking him down.  On the other hand Tommy Milone will have to have laser precision or else the Rangers’ modern day “murderers row” will pound him into oblivion.  I always feel like bad things always happen when the A’s visit the Rangers, but then again sometimes masterful performances a la Dallas Braden or Trevor Cahill in recent years take place, either way it’ll be fascinating to watch.

Check me out on Twitter @SeanD25, see my take on everything else baseball at Baseball Obsessed, and follow everything Swingin’ A’s @FS_SwinginAs.

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TURNING POINT:  The bottom of the 1st inning represented the first of two credible threats the Angels had to score against Tyson Ross.  The A’s had scored in the top of the 1st on “The People’s Right Fielder” Josh Reddick‘s 9th home run of the year, and it was important for Ross to shut down the Angels in their half of the inning.  Maicer Izturis singled with 1 out and stole 2nd with the much maligned Albert Pujols coming to the plate.  An 8 pitch at bat ensued with Ross ultimately emerging victorious getting one of his 10 ground ball outs.  Another lengthy battle occurred with Kendrys Morales, again ultimately won by Ross to squash the threat with RISP.  Ross faced the minimum over the next 3 innings, looking comfortable as ever in Anaheim.

Apr 17, 2012; Anaheim, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics starter Tyson Ross (66) delivers a pitch against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

ON THE HILL:  This was definitely a start Tyson needed to keep his confidence meter moving in the right direction.  When it was all said and done, Ross tossed 6 shutout innings, gave up only 5 hits, walked just 1, and struck out 2.  The story was the fact that he had the ground ball pitch working, 10 of his batters retired were on the ground, only 1 in the air.  His control was in good shape, throwing 60 of his 94 pitches for strikes.  Ross still has a long way to go to prove he’s a Major League caliber starter, but outings like this will help that process.  Grant Balfour may still be upset about losing the closer job, but he didn’t let it affect his performance on the mound, he pitched a 1-2-3 7th innings with 1 strikeout.  Jordan Norberto continued his impressive streak, sidestepping a couple singles and giving up nothing.  Ryan Cook came in to close out the game and successfully continued his scoreless streak, allowing just a single basehit.

AT THE PLATE:  Josh Reddick has continued to impress since coming to Oakland, extending his team lead in the HR department with his 1st inning solo shot.  The guy is a player, someone everyone who follows the A’s, not just the A’s faithful in the right field bleachers should get behind.  Seth Smith also continued his hot hitting with a pair of doubles and 2 RBI.  Other notables in the lineup were Jemile Weeks and his 0-4 night dropping him back below .200, and also having the distinction of being the only A’s hitter who didn’t reach base, and Daric Barton had a typical Barton night, going 0-2 with 2 walks.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  The lineup for Monday night looked somewhat more Major League worthy, but still was missing the bats of Brandon Inge and Kila Ka’aihue.  While Danny Haren has struggled a bit so far this year, he is still one of the better starting pitchers in baseball, so hanging 4 runs on him is still something to hang their collective hats on.  Tomorrow’s game features former Angel Bartolo Colon (3-3, 3.96 ERA) taking on longtime A’s nemesis Ervin Santana (1-6, 5.09 ERA) at an odd start time of 4:05 PM.  The A’s scored 4 runs against Santana on April 18 in Anaheim, they hope to be able to repeat that performance.  Santana has had an odd season thus far, in 5 of his 7 starts so far in 2012 the Angels have been shutout.  His 5.09 ERA though doesn’t necessarily indicate they’re all hard luck losses, but perhaps the pressure of zero run support has hurt his performance on the mound.  The A’s will hope to continue that misfortune and sweep this 2 game series tomorrow.

Check me out on Twitter @SeanD25, see my take on everything else baseball at Baseball Obsessed, and follow everything Swingin’ A’s @FS_SwinginAs.

Ross Clips Angels’ Wings, A’s Win 5-0 - Swingin' A's - Swingin' A's - An Oakland Athletics Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Justin Verlander was on his game Sunday. (Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)

TURNING POINT:  Perhaps it was the moment Justin Verlander walked from the Tigers’ dugout and picked up the baseball.  The A’s simply didn’t have a chance, mustering just the Reddick single, and the Smith homer (he also walked).  When the starter’s second to last pitch (number 103) is a 99 MPH fastball, you really have no chance. that’s what happened today.

ON THE HILL:  Jarrod Parker was certainly fighting an uphill battle today, against the ace of the other team, and against the strike zone.  Parker’s control problems continued, leading to 4 walks and a strike percentage in the 50′s.  But Parker managed to last 5.2 innings, and surrendered only 2 runs while striking out 6.  If he can simply gain some command of the strike zone, he’s shown he has ace potential.  Grant Balfour worked 0.2 innings, and walked in the 2nd ER charged to Parker in his new role, which according to Susan Slusser he was none too happy about.  Jordan Norberto continued his recent success with 1.2 clean innings, his ERA is now at 3.63 for the season.  Pedro Figueroa gave up a run for the second straight appearance in the 9th.

AT THE PLATE:  Not to beat a dead horse, but a lineup missing Kurt Suzuki, Jemile Weeks, Brandon Inge, and Kila Ka’aihue not to mention Yoenis Cespedes and Coco Crisp on the DL was not going to win.  They didn’t manage a hit against Joaquin Benoit or Jose Valverde either, it simply wasn’t their day.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  The A’s split both series on this homestand, and are still a game above the .500 mark as they head down to Los Angeles of Anaheim to face the Angels.  Tyson Ross (1-3, 7.71 ERA) squares off against old friend Danny Haren (1-3, 4.19 ERA) tomorrow night from Disneyland.  Obviously all A’s fans will look extra fondly on Mother’s Day after what happened in 2010 with Dallas Braden’s extraordinary day in Oakland, I was visiting my mom when I heard he was working on a perfect game, we put the game on and witnessed history.  I still get chills every time I watch the game highlights.  I hope all the mothers out there have had a wonderful Mother’s Day, and send best wishes to all of them (specifically to mine ofcourse, who’s been a big supporter of my writing), thanks for putting up with our baseball obsessions, and even sharing in them when history presents itself.

Check me out on Twitter @SeanD25, see my take on everything else baseball at Baseball Obsessed, and follow everything Swingin’ A’s @FS_SwinginAs.

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