Apr 26, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Tommy Milone (57) pitches against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning at O.Co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Milone had to work extremely hard tonight to make it through his 6 innings to nail down the victory.  The top of the 2nd inning was the most adventurous, and could have sent the game in an entirely different direction had Milone broken rather than just bent.  Another well placed pop up put the lead off man aboard, a couple of uncharacteristic walks by Milone would load the bases with nobody out.  A first pitch pop up by Elliot Johnson, and strikeouts of Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar would enable Milone to escape the inning unscathed.  The two arduous innings though would drive up Milone’s pitch count at an early stage.  Jesse Chavez was warming up in the bullpen during the 2nd when Milone was on the ropes.  Had the Royals been able to come up with a big hit Milone’s night may have been much shorter.

Milone overcame the high early pitch count and worked his way through 6 solid innings while allowing just the 1 run in the 1st.  Milone allowed 5 hits, 1 ER, with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts to snap his 5 start losing streak.  He got just enough support tonight, and it came just in time to get him the W.

The A’s offense woke up from their slumber in the bottom of the 6th inning as Eric Sogard led off with a double.  Coco Crisp walked as the lineup turned over, and a wild pitch moved Sogard to 3rd in the process.  Jed Lowrie‘s sacrifice fly tied the game up at 1 as Sogard easily beat Lorenzo Cain’s throw from center.  Brandon Moss would give the A’s the 2-1 lead with an RBI triple just to the left of straight away center field.  That would be all the offense the A’s would get, and it ended up being all they would need.

Ryan Cook and Seann Doolittle would work nice clean innings in the 7th and the 8th, with 2 strikeouts from Cook.  Grant Balfour worked a scoreless 9th for his 8th save of the season, he walked the lead off batter but retired the side in order quickly after that.

The A’s are now back to the .500 mark that very well could have started to slip away from them.  At 22-22, the A’s can now start to rebuild the good feelings the team had in the early stages of the season.  With Coco Crisp and Chris Young back in the fold, the team will start to function as a unit once again.

The A’s go for the sweep tomorrow as A.J. Griffin (4-3, 3.48 ERA) takes on Luis Mendoza (1-2, 6.00 ERA).  A sweep here will send the A’s off to Arlington for the first time in much better shape and ready for their first two city Texas road trip of the season versus the Rangers and Astros.

Road trips to the east coast proved difficult, lost series and sweeps against AL East opponents the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays brought the team back to Earth with a thud.  The struggles have continued and now the team sits at 20-22, the low watermark of the season, and finds themselves 7.5 games back of the Texas Rangers who just took two out of three in Oakland.

There are some pretty clear reasons why the team was where it was, and is where it is.

The pitching staff has been a disappointment overall.  Thought to be the strength of this team, the starting pitching has taken its lumps. Brett Anderson can’t stay healthy, Jarrod Parker has a 6.86 ERA, and Dan Straily can’t seem to convert his minor league success to the major leagues.  Tommy Milone and A.J. Griffin have been the strongest starters, both with ERA’s in the 3′s, and Bartolo Colon has been essentially the same pitcher he was in 2012.  If the A’s wish to get back into the race, Anderson and Parker will have to be at the forefront of the charge.  If Milone and Griffin are going to be called upon to pitch like aces, the team will likely fall short of their goals in 2013.

The injury bug has been especially cruel to the Athletics so far.  It was presumed before the season began that Bob Melvin would have trouble finding playing time for all 5 of his outfielders.  Yoenis Cespedes, Coco Crisp, and Josh Reddick were the starting three, with Chris Young and Seth Smith filling in the gaps and filling the DH spot.  At this point, Josh Reddick is on the DL and may not be back for a while, Chris Young is hopefully about to be activated, and Coco Crisp just returned from the DL on Wednesday.  Yoenis Cespedes served his time on the DL too with a hand injury.  Factor in the aforementioned health problems of Brett Anderson and it’s pretty easy to see why this team has fallen so far in such a short amount of time.  Players like Michael Taylor and Luke Montz are getting more playing time than they should on a team that is supposed to contend, and the team simply cannot win that way.

May 10, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Oakland Athletics third baseman Josh Donaldson (20) waits for the pitch during that game against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco FIeld. Seattle defeated Oakland 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Perhaps the biggest revelation has been the emergence of Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss as established middle of the order contributors.  Donaldson, the most emphatic of the two has posted an impressive .316/.390/.520 line with 5 home runs, 14 doubles, and a team leading 25 RBI. Moss, while not quite as eye popping has posted a .252/.354/.433 line with 6 home runs and 22 RBI.  There were questions as to whether those two would be able to repeat their breakout performances from 2012, and it appears as if both of them are giving us a firm yes.

The late acquistion of Jed Lowrie has paid significant dividends in the early going.  Much like the outfield the middle infield was expected to be clogged with talent.  Injuries during spring weeded out the possiblities for the A’s.  The hot spring for Eric Sogard made the second base job his, but Lowrie’s hot spring solidified himself as the A’s everyday shortstop.  He has rewarded that decision with a .399/.383/.448 line with 3 home runs, and 14 doubles to go along with 19 RBI.  His defense is a little bit questionable, but he’s made up for it with his bat.  In the absence of a healthy and productive Josh Reddick in the lineup, Lowrie has given the A’s a viable option to hit ahead of Yoenis Cespedes.

If the A’s want to right the ship, they need to get as many important players back as possible, and keep them healthy.  Yoenis Cespedes needs to get hot, red hot like we all know he is capable of.  The pitching staff needs to learn once again how to live up to their potential.  Ryan Cook needs to stop giving us ulcers during his innings.  Sean Doolittle needs to keep doing exactly what he’s doing.  The A’s simply may need to recapture just a little bit of that magic that propelled them to the playoffs in 2012.  It’s still early enough to get things going the right way, but it won’t be early for long.

So I may not being making any friends, when I make the statement that I’d prefer to see another player put a lock on the first base position. Before you start sharpening your pitchforks and/or prepare to burn me at the stake, hear me out.

Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

First of all, let it be said that at the very heart of Brandon Moss’s difficulties is his inability to make consistent contact. In a sense, the one constant of his professional career is a strikeout rate hovering over 25%. In his tenure in Oakland, Moss topped out at 30.4 % last season and has kept the pace with a 30.8% rate thus far this season. His walk rate has actually risen from 8.8 to 12.6 %, and despite his overall slash line dropping from .291/.358/.596 to .260/.364/.447 this season, Moss has actually experienced a reprise in BABIP luck replicating his .350 plus average from 2012. What concerns me the most, is that he has been rendered completely useless when falling behind in the count. While every hitter faces a statistical disadvantage when falling behind, Moss has devolved into a .114/.133/.205 hitter this season, with an egregious 27 strikeouts in 44 plate appearances.

Defensively, Moss has showed minor signs of improvement at the position despite spending considerable time lately in the outfield due to Oakland’s injury surplus. In 26 games a first, he’s made 3 errors total (2 fielding, 1 throwing) as opposed to 8 in 55 games last season. He seems more comfortable scooping low throws, and while he isn’t a glaring novice at first base anymore, there are certainly times when his relative inexperience manifests. Although it’s difficult to find the actual count, the issue remains that on multiple occasions Moss has ranged too far to his left on what would be a routine grounder to second, leaving first base unattended and costing the team an out. This was an issue last season, and with the pitching staff struggling as is, the 2013 Athletics simply cannot afford to allow extra base runners through methods such as this.

Although I expect Moss to have respectable power numbers by seasons end, it’s hard to ignore that he has struck out 15 times in the last 10 games, a span of 34 at bats while recording only 5 hits and 3 walks. Regression is to be expected, but I fear with each swing and a miss that Moss is inching closer to resembling the player he was in 2009 when he last received regular playing time at the big league level prior to last season. During that forgettable season, he struggled to a .236/.304/.364 mark in 133 games played and was soon banished to the minor leagues.

In all reality, the job will be Moss’s for the immediate future as in all likelihood he has no true competition. Daric Barton, is in the midst of his umpteenth stint in Oakland and has so far displayed his trademarked plate discipline, excellent defense, and underwhelming power and offensive skills in limited action this season. The man who won’t leave, doesn’t have many advocates amongst the Oakland faithful but still might be a useful piece as a defensive replacement and spot starter at the position. For now it appears the prospect of starting, has come and go for Oakland’s longest tenured position player and his best hope of sticking around is to embrace a role similar to what Doug Mientkiewicz filled during the course of his career. Nate Freiman is a neophyte, who had never played a game over Double-A before his surprising arrival during the waning days of spring training. With an impressive physical appearance, and power potential; Freiman is an intriguing option. However, with the club attempting to content in 2013, I wouldn’t expect anything more than the occasional start against a left-handed starter filling the role inhabited by Chris Carter last season. As the season progresses, it’ll be interesting to see how the former Duke Blue Devil adjusts in his first look at advanced pitching.

For now, Moss is in no immediate danger of losing his job. He’s simply too valuable to the team, but perhaps a defensive and offensive upgrade will one day emerge from the shadows.