It was a bumpy road without a doubt to get to that point.  The A’s had their chances to win this game, and even led in the 8th, but the bullpen was unable to hold it together to deliver the victory for the team.

May 14, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Texas Rangers celebrate after their win over the Oakland Athletics at O.co Coliseum. The Texas Rangers defeated the Oakland Athletics 6-5 in ten innings. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Bartolo Colon had one ugly inning, he allowed a sacrifice fly to Nelson Cruz, and a 2-run home run to Mitch Moreland to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead in the 4th.  Aside from that inning Bartolo was very effective, and would have been the winning pitcher had the bullpen been able to keep the Rangers off the board.  He allowed just 1 hit outside of that 4th inning.  His line of 6 innings, 4 hits, 3 ER, and 1 walk was nothing to be ashamed of.

Sean Doolittle did his job in the 7th inning, circumventing a Jed Lowrie error to deliver another scoreless frame.  He did also allow a hit.  Ryan Cook was the first offender for the Athletics bullpen, as he is prone to do, he put runners on base by not making his pitches.  He allowed two singles to put runners at first and third with 1 out, and Nelson Cruz delivered his second sacrifice fly of the night to tie the game.  Jerry Blevins came in to clean up Cook’s mess.  Had Cook been able to pitch a scoreless 8th, Blevins likely would have been there still to work the 10th inning.  The ramifications of Cook’s ineffectiveness were felt for the rest of the game as Chris Resop pitched the 10th and took the loss.  Resop’s time in Oakland has to be drawing to a close as he’s allowed 12 ER in his last 11 appearances.

The A’s got themselves off the mat against Rangers starter Derek Holland in the 5th as Adam Rosales grounded into a double play with the bases loaded to score a run, and Jed Lowrie doubled in the second run.  The A’s would tie the game in the 6th after a Josh Donaldson double, a productive groundout by Derek Norris to move him to 3rd, and a sacrifice fly by Luke Montz.  Seth Smith singled following Montz, and was driven in by Nate Freiman to give the A’s the 4-3 lead that Cook would relinquish soon after.

Josh Donaldson was the offensive star once again, going 4 for 5 with 2 doubles and a run scored.  He has raised his batting average to an impressive .315 this season.  Seth Smith went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored and an RBI, and Nate Freiman went 2 for 3 before being pinch run for by Brandon Moss.

The Athletics announced after the game that Michael Taylor was being optioned back to Triple A Sacramento, presumably for the activation from the disabled list of Coco Crisp.

The A’s will try to take this series tomorrow in a matinee as Dan Straily (1-1, 7.06 ERA) and Alexi Ogando (3-2, 3.09 ERA) take to the mound.  Straily has to figure out some way to keep the Rangers in the ballpark.  Considering this will be a warm day game, that seems like an almost impossible challenge.  Needless to say, if the A’s want to win this series they will have to bring the lumber.

Angel Hernandez looks to the heavens for competence, there is no hope for him. (David Richard-USA TODAY Sports)

Today’s game was simple, Bartolo Colon got rocked, and the resurgent Scott Kazmir shut down the Athletics offense with the exception of a solo home run from Josh Donaldson well after the game was in hand.  If the A’s were going to get swept like this, I can take comfort in that it came as part of the long journey for Kazmir all the way from the top of the AL pitching ranks, to independent ball, and back to the show.  I thought the guy would never find his way back, so in that sense I am happy for the guy.  But still, the Athletics are in a bit of a free fall right now and something needs to be done to stop this.

The injuries to the outfielders certainly is not helping the situation, Coco Crisp was off to a pretty good start to the season, and while Chris Young and Josh Reddick have struggled, their presence in the lineup can have a positive effect sometimes.  A lineup that includes Michael Taylor, Luke Montz, Adam Rosales leading off, and Nate Freiman doesn’t exactly resemble a division winner.  But that’s what the AL West Champs put out there today.

I’ll pound my fist on the table as many times as I have to in urging the A’s to call up the likes of Jemile Weeks, Grant Green, and even Shane Peterson from the River Cats.  The A’s need a spark after a flat 4 game series in Cleveland, and any one of those three could provide that spark.

So we will try to forget this ugly series in Cleveland as the A’s return to the Pacific time zone to take on the Seattle Mariners.  There has to be a lot of frustration within the ranks of the A’s, and playing against the AL West, against whom they are 13-3 just might be the right solution for this team.  Let’s hope Angel Hernandez is nowhere near the city of Seattle.

Apr 28, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics second baseman Eric Sogard (28) scores the winning run on a sacrifice hit by Oakland center fielder Coco Crisp (4) during the tenth inning against the Baltimore Orioles at O.co Coliseum. Oakland won 9-8. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports

The last three times the Athletics have won, Bartolo Colon was the starting pitcher, so it makes sense that they pulled out the victory today with him on the hill.  The Orioles jumped out in front by a 5-0 margin as Colon struggled in the 4th and 5th innings, it certainly seemed assured at that point that the A’s were going to lose yet another game.  Colon would make it through 6 innings giving up the 5 runs on 9 hits with no walks and 3 strikeouts.

The A’s took a huge bite out of the Orioles lead in the 6th inning with an RBI double by Coco Crisp, an RBI fielder’s choice by Seth Smith, and a 2 run double by Josh Donaldson.  With the game tightened up at 5-4 it seemed inevitable that the A’s would catch up with all the momentum swinging their way.  A Seth Smith 2 run home run in the 7th inning would put the A’s ahead for a moment.  Ryan Cook, Sean Doolittle, and Grant Balfour each surrendered runs in their respective innings that put the Orioles back in front.  That set up the dramatic late inning heroics by a man who had just returned from the disabled list, the man they call “La Potencia”, Mr. Yoenis Cespedes.

In a swing that very much reminded me of Adrian Beltre, Cespedes went down and got a Brian Matusz breaking ball and launched it into the left field bleachers to tie the game at 8 in the bottom of the 9th inning.  The importance of having Cespedes in the lineup cannot possibly be overstated here, and he showed that today.

Jerry Blevins pitched a clean top of the 10th inning to set up the A’s to try and win the game in the bottom half.  Eric Sogard led off with a single, and Adam Rosales attempted to bunt him into scoring position and did so, reaching base himself in the process.  Then Coco Crisp came to bat and laid down a bunt of his own.  Third baseman Manny Machado attempted to cut down Sogard at third but a bad throw resulted in the ball getting by J.J. Hardy as he coverd the bag.  Sogard had no clue where the ball was, and as Mike Gallego and every fan in attendence jumped around and screamed at Sogard to break for home, he finally realized the ball was in left field and sprinted towards the plate.  He dove in as the throw was off line, and the A’s came away with a much needed victory.

It may not have been pretty, and perhaps the A’s had no business winning this game, but they did and that’s a good thing.  I still would like to see more comfortable victories than walk off wins like this, but I’ll take what I can get.  Now the Los Angeles Angels make their first trip to the O.co Coliseum in 2013, and they’ve been struggling, losing 3 of 4 to the Mariners in Seattle over the weekend.  The A’s need to make sure not to be slumpbusters for the Halos, and instead look to further bury them in the standings.