Chris Young points to his family after his game winning 3-run homer in the top of the 9th. (Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)

The story of this game was very much the same as the previous games in Arlington, many opportunities to score  runs, many opportunities missed.  The Athletics had Erik Bedard on the ropes in the top of the 1st inning, loading the bases with nobody out, but they would only be able to deliver two runs.  Bedard would allow just those two runs in his 5 innings of work.

Meanwhile, Tommy Milone would cruise through the first four innings of the game, allowing a hit here and there, but suffering no damage.  The 5th inning would be an entirely different story.  After getting the first two outs without incident, the Astros got on the board when Matt Dominguez homered to left to make it a 2-1 game.  Ronny Cedeno hit a well placed pop up that neither Eric Sogard or Chris Young were able to get to, and the inning began to snowball from there.  An infield single and an RBI single by Jose Altuve would tie the game at 2.  The big blow came off the bat J.D. Martinez in the form of a 3-run home run to put some distance between the Astros and the A’s at 5-2.  Other than that inning Milone was very good tonight, and a couple of well placed balls go the other way and this inning never happens.  Milone would last 7 innings, and his line of 8 hits, 5 ER, 0 walks, and 6 strikeouts doesn’t do justice to how well he really did pitch overall.  He would get a no decision.

The A’s would inch closer when Seth Smith deposited a home run into the left field bleachers to the opposite field to make it a 5-3 game.  Pat Neshek would give the A’s a scoreless 8th inning and get the win tonight.  The real activity would come in the 9th inning.

John Jaso pinch hit for Adam Rosales to lead off the 9th inning, and he would draw a walk against Veras, Coco Crisp followed suit with a walk of his own, bringing up Chris Young with 2 runners on.  Young’s home run was a surprise within the game, but it really should not have been considering Young’s past at Minute Maid Park.  Young is hitting .418 for his career with 7 home runs and 27 RBI in 19 games there.  Each time he plays there are somewhere around 50 friends and family members in the stands to cheer him on, and they could be heard.  Without a doubt he loves playing for them.

With the pinch hitting of Jaso for Rosales in the top of the inning, the A’s were forced to do some rather unorthodox shuffling defensively in the bottom half.  Jaso had to play first base, Brandon Moss moved to third, and Josh Donaldson shifted over to shortstop.  For Moss and Donaldson, it was their first career appearances at those positions.  The A’s are pushing the limits of the term versatility to say the least.

This marks the fourth straight series in which the A’s have won the first game, and they have won the previous two after taking game 1.  The A’s will send out A.J. Griffin (4-3, 3.59 ERA) against Lucas Harrell (3-5, 4.63 ERA).  Griffin has been strong this year overall, and this will be his first ever start in Houston.

May 19, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics left fielder Yoenis Cespedes (52), shortstop Jed Lowrie (8), pitcher Adam Rosales (17) and first base Brandon Moss (37) celebrate after the game against the Kansas City Royals at O.co Coliseum. Oakland won 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports

Needless to say the returns of both Coco Crisp and Chris Young give an exponential boost of legitimacy to the everyday lineup.  It may be a harsh truth but a lineup featuring Michael Taylor and Luke Montz with any level of frequency above the occasional rest days for the regulars is not indicative of a contending team.  That’s not to say they can’t possibly be useful parts of a contending team, but in complementary roles only.  Having 3/4 of the original starting outfield back has, and will continue to pay dividends for the team.

The starting pitching may finally be coming around as well.  Despite the announcement Friday that Brett Anderson had a stress fracture in his foot and would miss an extended period of time, the starting pitching showed signs of life this weekend.  Jarrod Parker turned in his strongest start of the season Friday night against James Shields, Tommy Milone gutted out 6 effective innings when he clearly was struggling, and despite not being on his best A.J. Griffin kept the A’s in the game so they could come back and complete the sweep of the Royals.  The A’s will need those three to carry the load in Anderson’s absence, and at this point relying on his return and effectiveness upon that return would be foolish.

Josh Donaldson is playing at an All-Star level.  Not a “well the Athletics have to get one representative so it might as well be him” level, but a legitimate All-Star level.  Through Saturday’s game, Donaldson ranked in the top 10 in the AL with a 1.9 WAR, that’s not AL third baseman, that’s AL position players.  He’s in elite company there.  His 152 wRC+ ranks only behind Miguel Cabrera and Evan Longoria at third base.  His .323/.393/.544 slash line compares favorably with just about anyone in the AL not named Miguel Cabrera.  He may get shunned from the All Star Game due to a lack of name recognition, but at this point he undoubtedly deserves a spot.

Perhaps the biggest reason for short term optimism though is the fact that Yoenis Cespedes may be primed for a breakout.  Watching him in person on Friday night, the ball is jumping off his bat again.  Even when he’s making outs, he’s starting to make hard contact.  His .202 BABIP screams of bad luck.  While he hasn’t been making solid contact this year either, bad fortune hasn’t helped the cause.  If that BABIP starts to climb, he can carry the A’s back to the level where they were.

This upcoming three game set with the Texas Rangers in Arlington will be a big test for the Athletics on their path back into the upper echelon of the American League.  They will have to contend with one of the best pitchers in the AL right now in Yu Darvish on Tuesday night, both Yu and the A’s love strikeouts so making contact will come at a premium that night.  If the A’s can take game 1 of the series against Josh Lindblom, that will do wonders for their chances to take this series.  In case you forgot, the last time we saw Lindblom he was walking off field in Oakland after Yoenis Cespedes sent a rocket down the left field line for a 3-run walk off home run to complete a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers, hopefully Yoenis reminds reintroduces himself to Lindblom, if he does then the Athletics may be in business.

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.