June 5, 2012; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Travis Blackley (54) pitches the ball against the Texas Rangers during the second inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE

It has been a long time coming for win number 2 in the Major League career of Travis Blackley, but tonight it finally happened.  The Australian southpaw wasn’t dominant, but was sharp enough to be able to minimize the offense of a largely punchless San Diego Padres lineup.  He tossed 6 innings while allowing 2 ER on 5 hits and 2 walks, along with 3 strikeouts for his first win in the Show since July 1, 2004 for the Mariners against the Texas Rangers.  He wobbled at the outset, allowing a run to the Padres in the 1st, but the A’s offense had a counter punch that was ultimately a knock out blow with a 5 run 1st against Anthony Bass highlighted by a 2 run triple from Josh Reddick and another home run off the bat of red hot Brandon Moss.  The A’s would tack on a few more runs as the game carried on, taking advantage of scoring opportunities and Padres miscues on their way to a 10-2 victory.  Collin Cowgill and Cliff Pennington had banner nights as well, reaching base 7 times between the two of them.  It was a night that the Padres demonstrated they were better at being the A’s than the A’s.

Off the field the big story of the day was the release of Manny Ramirez.  Having not been called up when he had deemed himself ready to return to the Major Leagues, he requested his release from the Athletics.  It marks the end of the Manny era in Oakland before it ever really began, which I have mixed feelings about.  On one hand, I think the play of Brandon Moss has really caught the attention of Billy Beane and co. so they wouldn’t have wanted to disrupt him, and his production eliminated some of the immediate need for an injection of offense into the A’s lineup.  On the other hand, I was really kind of excited to see the circus act that Manny had become.  This is not a team that is expected to make any major impact this season, so having Manny around to well… be Manny would have been interesting if nothing else.  Alas, it’s a moot point as Manny Ramirez will either fade away into retirement or will somehow catch on with another club with an immediate need for a 40 year old DH whose career is literally running on fumes.

The A’s are riding a 4 game winning streak that has the team creeping ever so cautiously near the a realistic shot at reaching the .500 mark again.  The A’s will have to emerge victorious on the big stage in a marquis matchup of aces tomorrow afternoon…. okay maybe not.  The A’s will send Tyson Ross (2-6, 6.51 ERA) in place of Brandon McCarthy against newly signed innings eater Ross Ohlendorf (1-0, 3.38 ERA) at 1:05 PM PST.  The A’s have seemingly grown confident at the plate over the last 4 games, and it would serve them well to attack the ball when Ohlendorf releases it tomorrow because right now the hits are falling in or flying out.  The A’s are in a unique position where the team they are playing is in a more vulnerable state than they are, and they need to take advantage of that fact to try and salvage 2012.

Even if Bartolo Colon was perfect, he still wouldn't have gotten the win tonight. (Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE)

TURNING POINT: This was another unfortunate instance where the game was truly over before it even got going.  As a matter of fact the game was over before Bartolo Colon even recorded an out.  It took 8 pitches to be exact, 5 to walk Alex Gordon, and 3 to allow an RBI double to Yuniesky Betancourt.  Ballgame.  I guess you could say the Royals were running up the score by adding a second run in the 1st.  That’s bush league.

ON THE HILL: Bartolo Colon did nothing to deserve this kind of treatment, aside from the rocky 1st inning, he allowed nothing to the Royals for the duration of his 7 innings aside from 5 of his 8 hits, and 1 more walk.  Andrew Carignan and Jerry Blevins combined to pitch a scoreless 8th inning with only a walk from Carignan.  It’s got to be tough to be an Athletics pitcher right now.

AT THE PLATE: 3 hits, 4 walks, still no runs.  What more can you say?  Yoenis Cespedes’ return to the Athletics failed to ignite the offense, but at this point it’s doubtful anything can do that.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Just when you think the A’s have hit rock bottom, they continue to tumble.  The bright side of things is that the Mariners lost as well, so the A’s are only in last place by percentage points yet again.  One has to wonder how long Billy Beane will sit back and watch his team show complete and utter ineptitude before making some tough decisions and really shaking the roster up.  Manny Ramirez was scratched from the Rivercats lineup again tonight, and has not shown an ability to even hit Triple A pitching, let alone be ready for Major League pitching.  There are beginning to be more and more whispers that Manny may never get that call back to the show that he so desperately wants.  Tomorrow at 11:10 AM PST the A’s will try once again to pull their bats out of the coma they’ve been in for the last 2+ weeks.  Brandon McCarthy returns to the mound after his shoulder has hopefully settled down, he checks in with a 3-3 record and a 2.95 ERA, his opponent will be Luke Hochevar who looks to use the struggling A’s as a confidence booster as he’s been knocked around a bit this season to the tune of a 3-5 record with a 6.19 ERA.  While we here at Swingin’ A’s don’t condone the sacrificing of poultry (unless it’s for a tasty meal), I encourage all A’s fans to appeal to the baseball Gods to help pull our boys out of the doldrums of this losing streak.  They need all the help they can get.

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

Kurt Suzuki, Daric Barton, and Cliff Pennington have done little to help the A's score runs this year. Photo Credit: USPRESSWIRE

Thanks to a current eight game skid, the Athletics find themselves in last place in the AL West. Tied with Seattle, the A’s sit 9.0 games back of the first-place Rangers, a team that can actually score runs. Oakland’s offense hurt the team during their horrid skid to end the month of May, but with guys like Yoenis Cespedes and Manny Ramirez looking like they’ll be joining the team relatively soon, can the A’s offense turn things around?

Oakland’s offense currently ranks 29th in runs (164), 30th in batting average (.210), 29th in on-base percentage (.288), and, wait for it, 30th in slugging percentage (.332). Those numbers are, well, terrible. Billy Beane has spent a considerable amount of time assembling a new core of young pitchers that he may forgotten to address some of the team’s needs on offense.

All joking aside, the A’s have a few talented hitters down in the minor leagues waiting for their chance to impress us all with their skills. But the key word in my previous sentence is waiting. Guys like Michael Choice, Grant Green, and even some of the guys who have had a taste of the big leagues like Michael Taylor and Chris Carter, are all waiting to help Oakland.

The A’s have one guy, however, who has been doing his part to help Oakland generate some runs: Josh Reddick. The A’s acquired Reddick in the trade that sent Andrew Bailey to the Red Sox. He leads the team in HR (14) and RBI (27) and has been an absolute steal for the A’s this season. Imagine what the team would look like without Reddick in the lineup? Pure torture.

Anyway, on to the question at hand. Will the A’s finally wake up once a few helping hands arrive and finally score some runs to help support a decent starting rotation? Voice your opinion by placing your votes in the poll below and feel free to sound off in the comments section!

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