May 23, 2012; Oakland, CA, USA; Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Jered Weaver (36) pitches the ball against the Oakland Athletics during the third inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE

TURNING POINT:  Jarrod Parker wasn’t at his sharpest by any stretch of the imagination, but he at least limited the damage to two innings tonight.  For most of the game the A’s trailed by a 2-0 deficit established in the 2nd inning, and as Parker tried to battle through the 7th inning he faced adversity once again.  After inducing a groundout from Howard “Don’t Call Me Howie” Kendrick, Parker surrendered the 3rd base hit from fresh off the DL Erick Aybar and the 2nd single from Chris Iannetta to put 2 on with 1 out.  The two runners were moved to 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs on a Mike Trout ground ball to the right side that he nearly beat out.  Then grizzled veteran Torii Hunter came up in a clutch 2 out situation and delivered what many deemed to be the knockout blow with a solid single up the middle to drive in Aybar and Iannetta.  The Angels led 4-0 and with Weaver cruising this game was all but done.]

ON THE HILL:  Jarrod Parker had major trouble finding the strike zone tonight, and for the most part the Angels had trouble making him pay for it.  His line of 6.2 innings, 9 hits and 4 ER, with 1 walk and 6 strikeouts certainly could have been even uglier if the Angels had capitalized on his wildness.  He did throw 58 of his 98 pitches for strikes, but earlier in the game he was right around 50% on balls versus strikes percentage until he got in a mini groove in the middle innings.  Pat Neshek took over in the 7th inning and retired the side on a strikeout after hitting Albert Pujols with a pitch..  Pedro Figueroa handled the final 2 innings on just 1 hit and 2 walks with 2 strikeouts.  The bullpen as a whole should be fairly well rested now that they’ve had 2 full days off with the exception of the 2 batters faced by Neshek.

AT THE PLATE:  There certainly isn’t much to talk about regarding the A’s with the lumber tonight, they got owned by one of baseball’s best.  Only Derek Norris, Brandon Moss, and Brandon Inge reached base tonight with base hits.  Inge did have 2 hits including a double and the first hit of the night for the A’s.  Everyone else in the A’s lineup put up nothing but zeroes tonight.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  The A’s are out of a playoff spot for the first time in some time having fallen behind the Angels in the AL West and wild card standings.  It’s not time to panic just yet because there is still a lot of baseball to be played, but it seems abundantly clear that it is time to recognize that the tidal wave of momentum that fueled the best July the Athletics franchise has ever seen is gone.  I’ve written over the last couple days about the fact that the bullpen and the shortstop position need upgrades and soon.  Eric Sogard simply is not a Major League shortstop, he seems like a good guy but character isn’t going to win games.  Adam Rosales has more business being in Oakland than Sogard, but he’s a bench player.  I believe Billy Beane will not sit by and watch this go on, hopefully I’m right.  Tomorrow night the A’s will try to stop this streak and even up this series against the Angels starter everyone in the 510 loves to hate CJ Wilson (9-7, 3.27 ERA), the veteran Bartolo Colon takes the hill for the A’s with a 8-8 record and an ERA of 3.55.  Nothing would take the sting out of a complete game shutout like knocking around the straight edge lefty Wilson.

Ofcourse Albert Pujols went deep in Oakland... (Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)

The A’s certainly showed Angels how it’s done tonight.  What exactly they showed them probably isn’t what most fans would have liked.  Tonight simply wasn’t the A’s night, in any facet of the game.  CJ Wilson dominated the A’s for 8 scoreless innings only allowing a single hit and a couple of instances of “lawyerball” (walks).  Graham Godfrey pitched a rather uninspiring 3 innings, giving up 4 of the Angels 5 runs including a rare 2012 home run to Albert Pujols.  Cliff Pennington made a throwing error not long after Ken Korach did his best Glen Kuiper impersonation by praising Pennington’s “Gold Glove caliber” play at shortstop so far this year, and Josh Donaldson defied the advice from Little League coaches across the world and let the ball play him instead of playing the ball.

TURNING POINT: The first pitch of the game from Graham Godfrey was an 87 MPH fastball for a called strike to Mike Trout.  The turning point came with the second pitch, an 89 MPH fastball for a ball, followed by 3 more out of the strike zone.  Maicer Izturis singled to right to move Trout to 3rd, and Albert Pujols drove him in with a sacrifice fly.  Three batters into the game the Angels would have all they needed to win this game.  Godfrey would ultimately escape the 1st with 3 runs scored, the final 2 outs of the inning being recorded when Mark Trumbo was tagged out by Anthony Recker after perhaps being too aggressive off 3rd, and when Collin Cowgill threw Howard “Don’t You Dare Call Me Howie” Kendrick out at home on Erick Aybar‘s single.  Not exactly how you want to impress the suits in your return to the show Graham.  Perhaps this will be a short stint in Oakland.

ON THE HILL: It’s hard to imagine this is the same Graham Godfrey that out dueled Tim Lincecum last year.  It’s not like we expected him to be anything more than a back of the rotation starter, but this season so far every time he’s taken the mound the expectation seems to be that he’ll struggle, and struggle he has.  He posted a line of 3 innings, 6 hits, 4 ER, with 3 walks and 2 strikeouts, his ERA now sits at a “Lincecum-esque” (zing) 6.16.  Travis Blackley continued to impress in outlasting today’s starter Godfrey by going 3.2 innings and giving up an unearned run on 3 hits with no walks and 3 strikeouts.  Blackley’s strong pitching kept the game within striking distance until the late innings when Josh Donaldson’s error opened the door for the 5th run to score when Erick Aybar was hit by a Jim Miller curveball with the bases loaded.  Miller would finish that inning and go one more without allowing a run of his own.  Jerry Blevins pitched the 9th without incident, his ERA now sits at 2.33.

Look at the misery on CJ Wilson's face pitching from that terrible mound. (Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)

AT THE PLATE: So we could probably just skip this section altogether tonight.  CJ Wilson took a no hitter into the 5th inning when Cliff Pennington laced a single with 1 out, he was promptly erased by an Adam Rosales double play ball.  Walks to Daric Barton and Rosales surely infuriated Wilson, but that was all the resistance they could manage.  It may have been a lineup missing Josh Reddick, Jemile Weeks, and Kurt Suzuki, but when you get owned, you get owned.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  It’s still personal for many A’s fans against CJ Wilson, so seeing him dominate the A’s like this just leaves a sick feeling in everyone’s stomach.  The Athletics do not have an easy task in attempting to rebound tomorrow in the battle of the Jareds (Jarrod or Jered).  The A’s will send out rookie Jarrod Parker who had an extremely rough outing against the Giants last Friday night in San Francisco, hopefully he can gain some command tomorrow.  He carries a 1-2 record with a 3.90 ERA against Jered Weaver who is 6-1 with a 2.80 ERA and a no hitter against the Twins to his credit.  Runs will be hard to come by for the A’s, so Parker has to be on his game.

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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.

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