Ryan Cook, during happier times. (Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE)

Lincecum’s opponent, A’s starter Jarrod Parker had what I would characterize as a solid but unspectacular outing.  He lasted 6 innings (plus 1 batter in the 7th), gave up 4 hits and 1 ER while walking 2 which is pretty good for him, and striking out 4 in the process.  His pitch count was approaching 100 and the match ups favored bringing in the lefty Jerry Blevins to stamp out the flame of a rally in the 7th, so Bob Melvin made the move.  The combination of Blevins and Grant Balfour managed to finish off the inning without any damage being done.  The bottom of the 7th and 8th innings are going to be the other points in this game that will cause A’s players to lose sleep tonight.

The 7th inning saw the first two batters retired, but an error by Ryan Theriot on a Jemile Weeks ball, and a walk to Josh Reddick put Yoenis Cespedes at the plate with a chance for a big insurance run.  Fresh off his dramatic walk off homer against the Dodgers on Thursday, many A’s fans expected him to come through in a dramatic moment yet again.  It wasn’t meant to be, he harmlessly grounded out to end it.  The bottom of the 8th inning is a moment that will drive fans of any team insane.  After a walk by Brandon Inge, a Kurt Suzuki single, and a Cliff Pennington walk the bases were loaded for Coco Crisp.  This was a huge situation as the A’s had a chance to blow the game open with their shiny new shut down closer waiting in the bullpen to slam the door shut, but Crisp took a called strike 3 to end the inning.  Nothing is more infuriating than leaving the bases loaded on a called 3rd strike, just ask Terrence Long how much love he gets in Oakland.

So we moved on to the top of the 9th inning, with Ryan Cook on to save the game, and perhaps he’s been watching old highlights of Brian Wilson walking the tight rope.  After all, Wilson’s antics in the 9th inning were the reason the Giants adopted that nauseating “torture” slogan in the first place.  Many A’s fans though have seen Cook as infallible, mainly due to the nasty slider he exhibits.  But the achilles heel of the young right hander is his affinity for issuing free passes, and that is exactly the thing that spelled disaster for him tonight.  The moment he walked Buster Posey to lead off the 9th I knew it was going to be trouble, the moment he walked Pablo Sandoval to put 2 on with no outs, I knew it was over.  Many A’s fans probably felt that same sense of dread, the Giants were about to conjure up a little of that magic they’ve had in their back pockets for the last 2 years, and Ryan Cook was about to be their victim.  A Brandon Belt double tied the game at 3, a Hector Sanchez single gave them the lead, and a Gregor Blanco single dealt the decisive blow.  Ryan Cook didn’t retire a single batter, and it took Sean Doolittle a few batters to get his bearings and get out of the inning.  But the damage had been done.

Josh Reddick homered in the bottom of the 9th inning to make it a 5-4 game (according to many A’s fans on Twitter Jemile was on the receiving end of some shotty strike calls and should’ve been on 1st, which would’ve lead to a tie game), but it was not a spark of a comeback rally.  The A’s went quietly after that and the Giants took the first game of this series.  All of the good feelings, and optimism, and confidence that had been built up since the beginning of the Colorado series was wiped out by one disastrous outing from Ryan Cook.  This was his 5th out of 6 games, so perhaps he was a bit gassed, or perhaps his propensity to walk hitters simply caught up with him finally.  Either way his ERA skyrocketed from 0.57 to 1.71.  That scoreless streak sure seems like a long time ago now.

The A’s will attempt to recover from this brutal punch to the gut tomorrow as these two teams tangle again at 4:15 PM PST in front of the entire country on FOX.  Tyson Ross (2-6, 6.11 ERA) will start in place of the disabled Bartolo Colon, Ross was shaky yet dominant in his last start against the Padres when he allowed only 1 hit in his 6 innings of work despite control issues.  Madison Bumgarner (8-4, 2.92 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Giants as they look to win the season series with a victory tomorrow.  It’s hard to say this rivalry isn’t personal for the A’s fans, the feeling remains that the Giants are fighting to deny the A’s their very existence, it may be business but I take that very personally.  There’s nothing I would like to see more than the A’s come out and embarrass the Giants on a big stage so let’s not get down on our boys and lets see them take it to those guys from across the bay.

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

Collin Cowgill becomes the new Scott Cousins with this dive into Tim Lincecum (Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE)

TURNING POINT:  The aforementioned nightmare inning was the top of the 4th when the A’s finally began to capitalize on the Franchise.  After Josh Reddick grounded out to lead off the inning Seth Smith and Josh Donaldson singled and Daric Barton walked (I know, shocked), Kurt Suzuki dealt the first big blow.  Kurt’s single down the 3rd base line made it a 2-1 game, it could’ve been more had Joaquin Arias not gotten a glove on the ball.  Then the most unlikely of clutch hits followed, the outfield’s answer to Josh Donaldson in the person of Collin Cowgill came up with the bases still loaded and managed to frisbee a ball up the middle to drive in two.  The A’s had the lead now, something any honest A’s fans probably didn’t expect to see.  But the signature moment was still yet to come.  Bartolo Colon somehow made contact and forced out Suzuki at 3rd base, moving Cowgill up to second.  The first pitch to Jemile Weeks is a curve in the dirt and it gets away from Buster Posey, as he searches desperately for the ball Cowgill is on the move, by the time Posey locates the ball Cowgill is rounding 3rd and heading for the plate where Lincecum himself is covering.  Cowgill dives and torpedoes head first right into Mr. Cy Young’s grill, knocking him aside and knocking the ball loose.  It was easily the most impressive base running instinct play since Jason Kendall broke for home while K-Rod lollygagged on a dropped toss back from his catcher.  Momentum had been given to the Giants all weekend, and the A’s decided to take it back.

ON THE HILL: Bartolo Colon didn’t exhibit the pinpoint control he’s shown to be still capable of today, but it was good enough to get the W.  He only lasted 5 innings giving up 2 ER on 6 hits, 2 walks, while striking out 7.  The A’s would like to see him go deeper in games obviously, but this will have to do.  Jordan Norberto continued his recent dominance with a 1-2-3 inning in the 6th, his ERA is down to 2.91 and his WHIP is 0.92.  Grant Balfour allowed a hit in a scoreless 7th inning, but most importantly didn’t have nearly the same problems finding the strike zone.  Ryan Cook continued to dazzle with a 1-2-3 inning with 2 strikeouts.  Brian Fuentes came in to close down the game and gave up a harmless 2 out single before securing the victory.  After the walk-fest that was games 1 and 2, the 2 walks allowed by Bartolo and the goose egg allowed by the pen was heartily welcomed, hopefully those two games were the exception and not the rule.

There are a lot of Josh Reddick jogging pictures this season, 11 to be exact. (Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE)

AT THE PLATE:  All the regular position players reached base at least once via either a base hit or a walk (Barton) and no one player had a necessarily stand out game.  That is to say 1-4 with your 11th home run of the season is becoming less and less remarkable, if your name is Josh Reddick.  He definitely has a power stroke going, and it has the looks of an ability that is here to stay.  If it’s possible to slap a home run to dead center, that’s what Reddick did.  He didn’t seem to get the ball on the barrel of the bat, but he was still able to get enough back spin for the ball to carry out, that’s impressive and not all players can do that.  His case to become the first position player to represent the A’s at the All Star Game since C Ramon Hernandez in 2003 is getting stronger by the day.

Just cuz... (Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE)

FINAL THOUGHTS:  It’s hard not to take this series personally, simply because of all the drama taking place in the board rooms of both these teams.  The A’s are in a dire position no doubt, and due in large part to the generosity of the Haas family 20 years ago or so, and the fact that the Giants have taken that generosity and thrown it in the A’s faces.  The tone of the rivalry between the fans has turned nasty.  Where before it was all about who had the best team in the Bay Area, now it’s about the A’s fight for survival, and the Giants effort to exterminate what they see as an infestation of their territory.  So while the Giants did take the series, the manner in which those games went down, and the forcefulness with which the A’s took the finale makes me feel like the A’s have the momentum when the Battle of the Bay shifts to the O.co in June.

The A’s return to normalcy for a bit and host the The Angels Angels of Anaheim.  Jerome Williams, a man familiar to the Bay Area continues his return to the show and brings a 4-1 record, and a 3.86 ERA to a showdown with Mr. O.co Tommy Milone who has shown a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act in Oakland versus on the road (try 0.39 ERA at home, 7.19 on the road).  It has amounted to a 5-3 record with a 4.09 ERA overall.  I will be in attendance tomorrow, live tweeting witty comments and observations as the game plays out (@SeanD25).  This will be game number 4 this year for yours truly, 3 of them have been Milone starts, so I’ll try to keep my telepathic connection strong with Tommy and send swing and miss thoughts A-Pu’s (Albert Pujols for those uneducated) way.  Till tomorrow, LET’S GO OAKLAND!!!!

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

Jarrod Parker had reason to look down after his performance Friday night. (Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)

TURNING POINT:  The big moment in the game came in the bottom of the 3rd inning, Jarrod Parker was struggling mightily with his command (a recurring and disconcerting problem).  He walked Gregor Blanco to set up the RBI double from Brandon Crawford, walked Angel Pagan to load the bases after Melky Cabrera‘s bunt single, then walked Brandon Belt to force in a run.  Bob Melvin had seen enough, Jerry Blevins came in to put out the fire.  He gave up a sacrifice fly to Hector Sanchez, struck out Joaquin Arias on a pitch that allowed Brandon Belt to take second, leading them to intentionally walk Emmanuel Burris with Barry Zito on deck.  That seemed like a pretty easy strategic move to make, until Mr. Blevins couldn’t throw a strike when he needed to against Barry freakin’ Zito.  He forced in another run, making it a 6-1 ballgame.  It was still early though, but it ultimately gave the Giants enough distance that they would hold onto the lead for good.

ON THE HILL:  Jarrod Parker simply didn’t have it, and he’s lucky to escape tonight with a line of 2 innings, 4 hits, 6 ER, 4 walks, and 0 strikeouts.  Like I said before, an offensively potent team would probably have hung a double digit score on Parker’s line alone the way he threw.  He only was around to make 58 pitches, and only 28 of them were strikes, you can’t have numbers like that and expect to get anybody out.  The A’s need to see some signs that he can hold it together or he may need some more time as a Rivercat.  Jerry Blevins did an honorable job of eating up some innings if nothing else, but he did walk Barry Zito with the bases loaded, that’s simply unacceptable.  The Giants did manage 2 ultimately crucial tack on runs in the 4th against Blevins after a small hit parade.  Pedro Figueroa thought he’d get in on the walk the Giants party in the 5th, walking Barry Zito again (#%$@!!) and allowing a hit to Blanco, but a well placed double play ball bailed him out.  For good measure though he added a couple walks to his collection in the 6th before Jordan Norberto came in to shut the Giants down in order.  In a brazen show of bravado, Norberto went on to pitch the 7th as well while not allowing a single baserunner.  Travis Blackley made his A’s debut in the 8th against the team that just dumped him and retired the side efficiently on 7 pitches.  An ugly day for the A’s staff as a whole if you’re name isn’t Norberto or Blackley.

Josh Donaldson carried the team on his back Friday, it almost worked. (Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)

AT THE PLATE:  In 2012 Josh Donaldson has 10 RBI at AT&T Park, and 5 of them even count!  He must really want to impress the Giants or something because he’s had two monster games there this year.  He came into tonights game with a robust .082 AVG, I know there is a lot more to evaluating hitting, but there’s no way around the fact that he’s been an out machine this year when it counted.  His 3-4 night sent his AVG skyrocketing to .132, it’s a small step and perhaps a giant leap for the confidence of this converted catcher.  The A’s actually out hit the Giants tonight, if the A’s pitchers had been able to find the plate, we might be talking about a win.  Jemile Weeks did make the most out of his 1 hit, a lead off triple that got the comeback rally started against Zito, he sits above the Mendoza line for another day.  Daric Barton also collected a couple hits and scored 2 of the runs for Donaldson’s 5 RBI.  Collin Cowgill is becoming the outfield version of Josh Donaldson, his AVG sits at .129, Coco Crisp or Yoenis Cespedes can’t return soon enough.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  The A’s have now lost 10 straight games at PacSBCATT Park, this needs to stop.  The Giants do not have an intimidating lineup, and it was even less so with Buster Posey sitting out for Barry Zito’s apparent personal catcher Hector Sanchez, and the A’s still lost.  I truly believe the A’s are a better team than the Giants right now, but they didn’t play like it tonight.  Someone needs to hypnotize Tyson Ross tomorrow to make him think he’s in Anaheim again, because after today’s disaster the A’s need their starter to go somewhat deep into the game (Can I get 6 innings??? Please???).  Ross comes into the game with a 2-3 record and a 6.25 ERA, he’s looked much better as of late and needs to see his ERA continue to trend downward.  The Giants will send out Ryan Volkswagen… I mean Voldemort… I mean Van Halen… oh right, Vogelsong who sports a 2-1 record with a 2.66 ERA.  The A’s current roster composition may force them to start Cowgill in center again so they can double switch him out later in the game if a crucial at bat comes around, if Donaldson can maintain his AT&T magic the A’s may be able to get to Vogelsong like they did Zito tonight.  As always with a loss, the beauty of baseball lies in the fact that a new day rapidly approaches, a 1:05 PM start kicks things off.  Let’s show these guys what A’s baseball is really all about.

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