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.

Chris Young should have ended the game with a 2 out walk off home run in the 10th inning, it was reviewed and determined to have stayed in the park, but TV replays seemed to indicate otherwise.  Little did we know that call would give us 9 more innings of baseball.

Brandon Moss with the self pie! (Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)

To say things got a little nutty during extra innings last night would be an understatement.  Three centerfielders pulled up lame, Coco Crisp and his replacement Chris Young, and Peter Bourjos for the Angels all left the game with leg injuries.  The status of Young and Crisp is unknown still.  But perhaps the strangest event was Brett Anderson, who was scratched from the start that night, was called into duty out of the empty bullpen and ended up pitching 5.1 innings, allowing 1 run on a bases loaded walk that by accounts from the pitch tracker from MLB.com should not have been.  Anderson himself would tweak his injured ankle and would leave the game, forcing the previously unavailable Jerry Blevins into action.

Jerry had pitched a lot of the previous two games, so Bob Melvin wanted to give him some rest, but this was an extreme circumstance. Jerry was enthusiastically greeted by chants of “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!” by the remaining fans and he rewarded them with stellar relief pitching.  When Chris Young exited the game, Seth Smith had to vacate the DH spot and move into the outfield, meaning the A’s lost the DH and the pitcher would have to bat.  That pitcher ended up being Jerry Blevins and while he did strike out looking, he did manage to foul off a pitch.

Brandon Moss was the hero who finally freed us from the stadium in the 19th, but there were many who deserve credit for making this a victory.  Moss was given the honor of pieing himself after the game, and got another from Josh Reddick (who had been pinch hit for by Chris Young by the way).

As for Josh Hamilton, he went 0-8 on his own appreciation night.  But he took the abuse from the RF bleachers like a champ.  Whether it’s interacting with the fans, or asking for a few of the fun sized Butterfinger bars that were being passed around, and even posing for a picture holding one, Hamilton showed that at least for this night he didn’t take himself too seriously.  I give him all the credit in the world for that.

Who knows what ramifications this game will have for both teams, as the bullpens were heavily taxed, and position players have to be exhausted.  It’s a good thing this was the first game of the series so neither team has an advantage over one another, they can recover together.  Jarrod Parker pitches tonight, and he needs to go deep into this game to save the bullpen.

Last night just goes to show you never know what you’ll see at the ballpark, and last night we were witness to the longest game the A’s have ever played.  A 6 hour and 32 minute roller coaster ride, with the ultimate payoff at the end.

April 29, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; The scoreboard after the 19th inning walk-off two-run home run by Oakland Athletics first baseman Brandon Moss (37, not pictured) against the Los Angeles Angels at O.co Coliseum. The Athletics defeated the Angels 10-8 in the 19th inning. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

There are too many layers to this game to possible analyze at this point.  All I can say right now is that this was one of the most incredibly memorable baseball games I’ll ever see.

Josh Hamilton gets a lot of credit for being a great sport with all the razzing about his dropped fly ball, he gained points in many fans minds I believe by playing along.  He may have gotten a little grumpy by the end, but who wouldn’t after 6 1/2 hours of trash talk?  For everything else that surrounds him, he showed a lot of character out there in right field.  I’ll have more details on the aftermath of Josh Hamilton Appreciation Night later today.  For now, we have another A’s game in just about 16 hours to look forward to.  Sleep fast everyone.