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.

Might the bespectacled Sogard be finding his stroke? (Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)

A.J. Griffin had a rather rough start to the game as he struggled to find the strike zone through the first 3 frames.  During that span he walked 4 batters, which was more than he had in any of his starts in his young career.  He got himself into big trouble in the top of the 3rd inning though, when he started to find the zone to get a big strikeout of J.D. Martinez with the bases loaded and 1 out, then a spectacular diving catch by first baseman Shane Peterson to allow Griffin to minimize the damage to just 2 runs.  Peterson was in Oakland and in the lineup in place of Brandon Moss who left the team as his wife gave birth to their second child.

Griffin’s night was a tale of two starts, as shaky as his first 3 innings were, his final 3 were dominant as he didn’t allow a single baserunner.  All told, Griffin’s line was 6 innings, 4 hits, 2 ER, 4 walks, and 8 strikeouts. He would receive a no decision though after Sean Doolittle surrendered the tying run off the bat of Carlos Pena in the 8th inning.

The A’s struggled a bit against former farmhand Brad Peacock, failing to reach base until Eric Sogard tripled from the number 9 spot in the order in the 3rd inning.  They would fail to score that inning, but the crack in the armor Brad Peacock had built up would be enough to get him out of the game in short order. They would get on the board in the 4th in a wild pitch by Peacock, and a Coco Crisp triple to score Sogard, and a Seth Smith RBI single would put the A’s in front 3-2 and get Peacock out of the game in the 5th inning in the process.

Ryan Cook pitched the 7th inning, and allowed a base hit in an otherwise clean inning.  Sean Doolittle, as I pointed out earlier wasn’t so fortunate as he gave up the tying run on a Carlos Pena homer.  The A’s would get that run right back in the bottom of the 8th though when Josh Reddick drew a walk, and Josh Donaldson connected on the team’s third triple of the night to score Reddick and take the lead for good.  Grant Balfour worked a clean 9th inning with 2 strikeouts for his second save of the season.

The A’s offense was highlighted by the suddenly hot hitting Eric Sogard, who finished a home run shy of the cycle in his 3 for 3 night.  He has raised his average up to .297 on the season.  Josh Reddick on the other hand went 0 for 2 with 2 walks, his average is down to .103.

The Athletics are now 11-4 on the season, and improve to 5-0 versus the Astros this year.  They go for the sweep on getaway day tomorrow afternoon as Bartolo Colon (1-0, 4.15 ERA) faces Bud Norris (2-1, 1.96 ERA) at the O.co Coliseum.

Oct 7, 2012; Detroit, MI, USA; Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Grant Balfour (50) pitches in the ninth inning of game two of the 2012 ALDS against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Detroit won 5-4. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Well, it was nowhere near as dramatic, but the Athletics have been hit with another knee injury within the first week of camp.  Grant Balfour underwent successful surgery Thursday to repair his torn meniscus that had apparently bothered him dating back to last season.  It began barking at him again this week and they decided to operate now and give Balfour and the team hope he would be ready by the beginning of the regular season.  The chance remains though that Balfour may need to get some extra reps on the mound to tune up before entering live game situations.

I’m treating this situation as if it won’t have a major impact on the Athletics season, no matter what some supposed experts may want you to think.  But the possibility always remains that the rehab could not go as well as hoped, and the A’s bullpen could be without its emotional leader for a period of time.

Naturally the question as to who would cover the 9th inning in Balfour’s absence would come into play.  The obvious candidates to close games would be right hander Ryan Cook and left hander Sean Doolittle.  Cook did serve as the team’s closer for a brief period during the 2012 season, and needless to say he had his issues in the 9th inning.  He was removed from the role and replaced by Balfour for the duration of the season.  He certainly would qualify as the more experienced replacement.

Sean Doolittle though might prove to be the more effective candidate.  He showed what can only be described as electrifying stuff during the 2012 season, and while he did have his implosions at times, he made incredible strides after converting from a first baseman to a set up guy.  He has 1 save to his name, a dominant 1-run save against the New York Yankees to save the 3rd game of an eventual 4 game sweep in July.

So who should they turn to if Balfour isn’t ready?  I think this time it would have to be Doolittle’s turn.  Not only did he prove himself in 2012, but the Ryan Cook we saw in the 9th inning was a far cry from the one we saw in the 7th and 8th innings during the rest of the season.  Cook may be one of those guys who is just much more suited to a set up role, which is no less valuable than a closer.

Balfour’s absence would also delay a decision needing to be made at the back end of the bullpen, bringing good news for Hideki Okajima, or Evan Scribner perhaps.  But without a doubt that would be a short lived.

Hopefully this injury isn’t a sign of things to come in 2013, over the last few years injuries have plagued what could have been promising seasons for the Athletics, and this is not the time for the injury bug to creep back into our lives.  Time to break out the “Rage Raid” to keep the injury bug away from the Oakland Athletics.