Yeah Tex, that was strike 3. (Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE)

TURNING POINT:  The only blemish of the night for Parker came when the Yankees were able to scratch out a run with a leadoff Alex Rodriguez single, a couple groundouts to move him to 3rd, and an RBI single up the middle from Raul Ibanez.  The A’s were down and had to try to scratch out a run of their own, and they didn’t waste any time.  A couple fly outs by Jemile Weeks and Josh Reddick brought the man of the hour on the offensive side Yoenis Cespedes to the plate.  Cespedes is fast becoming one of the must see hitters in the entire league, and he put on a show tonight, driving a 2-1 fastball from Hughes well into the left field bleachers.  Just like that the game was tied and we were back even with half the game left to play.  But it felt like the A’s had the momentum with Parker just beginning to find his groove.

ON THE HILL:  Jarrod Parker needed to avoid putting Yankees hitters on base with the walks that have plagued him all season, he did just that.  The one walk he did issue was the last Yankee to reach base against him tonight.  Overall Parker pitched 8 innings, allowing 5 hits and 1 walk with 5 strikeouts.  Sean Doolittle came on to close out the game and while he did allow a leadoff seeing eye single to Alex Rodriguez, he struck out Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira on a near strike ‘em out-throw ‘em out double play to end the game, and finally Andruw Jones on a high fastball for the final out.  This was Doolittle’s first career save, and his dominance at the major league level continues.

AT THE PLATE:  The A’s really didn’t have much going offensively tonight as they only mustered 4 hits against the Phil Hughes, but two of them counted more than all the others and it was just enough.  Yoenis Cespedes, Brandon Inge, Coco Crisp, and Chris Carter were the only ones to find the hit column, and Cespedes and Derek Norris also drew walks.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  The A’s are in great position now not only for this series but in the standings.  With a 50-44 record they are now tied with the Chicago White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles for the 2nd wild card spot, the Detroit Tigers beat the White Sox today to take a 1/2 game lead in the AL Central.  But perhaps more importantly with the Texas Rangers defeating the Los Angeles Angels tonight, the A’s are just 1/2 game behind the Angels in the AL West for 2nd place.  They remain 6.5 games behind the Rangers, but passing the Angels would be huge for this team’s confidence going forward.  I never would have expected to say this, but the A’s have a chance to sweep the 4 game series tomorrow afternoon as Bartolo Colon (6-8, 3.88 ERA) takes on Bay Area guy and Vallejo native CC Sabathia (10-3, 3.27 ERA).  The A’s have had a fair amount of success against Sabathia over the years, so they know they can hit him, but Sabathia is still one of the most dominant pitchers in the game when he’s on so the A’s will need to be at their best to beat him.  The A’s have done a great job lately of not letting up when they have an advantage, and now is not the time to stop, it has to be full speed ahead to sweep the Yankees right out of Oakland!

July 19, 2012; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher A.J. Griffin (64) pitches the ball against the New York Yankees during the second inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE

TURNING POINT:  The top of the 1st inning was the moment it was made clear to everyone that this game wasn’t going to play out in the same fashion all the other games has.  Derek Jeter singled to lead off the game in classic opposite field Derek Jeter style, and surely every A’s fan held their breath, feeling the dread of what was expected.  After Curtis Granderson flied out, Alex Rodriguez delivered a single of his own.  The Yankees had 2 on and 1 out against the young right hander AJ Griffin, making just his 5th MLB start.  Then a bizarre play took place when Robinson Cano lined a ball at Yoenis Cespedes that appeared to be caught but was dropped shortly thereafter.  Cespedes seemed to think he dropped the ball while transferring to his throwing hand, and everyone else did too.  Derek Jeter and A-Rod froze at their bases, and Cespedes realized what call had been made and heaved the ball towards 3rd base.  The ball sailed well over Brandon Inge’s head but thankfully Griffin was backing up the throw, he ran to the base and forced out Jeter.  Such a strange play like that usually goes against the A’s, but this time it worked in their favor.  Mark Teixeira was retired to end the inning and the threat.  That changed everything in 1 half of an inning.

ON THE MOUND:  AJ Griffin settled in nicely after his rather interesting 1st frame, retiring 11 Yankees in a row after Raul Ibanez singled with 1 out in the 2nd.  The Yankees got a couple runs on the board  in the 6th inning against Griffin, but the rookie buckled down and limited the damage.  Usually Mark Teixeira’s sac fly with the bases loaded would’ve been a game tying grand slam, tonight it wasn’t.  Griffin pitched 6 innings, allowed 7 hits and walked nobody while striking out 4 to earn his 2nd big league victory.  Sean Doolittle and Grant Balfour each pitched routine 1-2-3 innings in the 7th and 8th innings.  Ryan Cook came on for the save tonight, he only surrendered 1 hit but it came in the form of a Nick Swisher home run, the first Cook has given up in the Major Leagues, but he gathered himself quickly to lock down the first A’s win at home against the Yankees since the Reagan administration.

AT THE PLATE:  Yoenis Cespedes continued to swing a hot bat, going 2-3 with a walk and the big 2 run homer.  It’s no coincidence that his hot hitting has come just as the A’s have really started winning.  Seth Smith struggled for the most part tonight, but did have the one 2 run single that ended up giving the A’s just enough to hold onto the win tonight, Smith was 1-4 with 3 K’s.  Coco Crisp went 3-4 with a run scored, his AVG is now up to .242, a much more respectable number than he had been posting before.  Jemile Weeks was 2-4 with 2 runs scored and a stolen base.  And then there’s the bottom third of the order, I know it’s supposed to be where all your team’s weakest hitters are placed, but this is ridiculous.  The 7-8-9 hitters were 0-11 with 5 K’s tonight (Derek Norris, Brandon Inge, and Cliff Pennington I’m looking in your direction).  Norris is lost at the plate right now, one might wonder if his time in Oakland for the immediate future is coming to an end if his bat continues to be in a coma.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  The A’s now find themselves 4 games over the .500 mark at 48-44, they haven’t been this far above .500 since May 2010.  It was important for them to get this streak the Yankees had over them in Oakland out of the way right off the bat, now they can play looser and more relaxed through the remaining 3 games.  AJ Griffin proved himself yet again on a big stage against the mightiest of the mighty teams in baseball.  It would’ve been nice if Ryan Cook had been able to pitch a scoreless 9th to end the Yankees streak of 43 straight games scoring 3 or more runs, but beggars can’t be choosers.  Billy Beane will probably lose sleep tonight though about the ineptitude of the bottom third of the order/left side of the infield, something has to be done if the A’s are serious about improving the team.  The fact of the matter is this, there isn’t a definite solution on the way to Oakland for both of these positions, Grant Green will probably take one of those positions soon enough if this continues, but Beane may have to look outside the organization to help the team win.  But in the here an now, Tommy Milone (9-6, 3.54 ERA) takes the hill against the Bombers tomorrow night and he’ll be opposed by the young right hander Ivan Nova (10-4, 4.18 ERA).  Milone needs to continue his exceptional pitching at home because runs may be at a premium against a tough opponent in Nova.  The A’s can take this series by the horns with a win tomorrow, I hope they show the Yankees and the world that this is a team to be reckoned with.

I don’t know if there is any way to quantify the phenomenon of one team “having your number” but this seems to be the case between these two teams.  I find myself wondering before each game the A’s and Yankees play, exactly what heartbreaking moment will take place, who will hit a backbreaking home run, how will the A’s snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?

May 26, 2012; Oakland, CA, USA; New York Yankees relief pitcher Cody Eppley (38) and catcher Chris Stewart (right) celebrate after the game against the Oakland Athletics at O.co Coliseum. The Yankees defeated the Athletics 9-2. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

Today for example, the man who had been struggling so much, fighting illness recently, Mark Teixeira went deep not once but twice.  This after he had already homered last night.  Suddenly Mark Teixeira is heating up and feeling better, the A’s were just the right medicine.  I don’t know how to describe it, but it seems to happen a lot.  Maybe it’s the power of Glen Kuiper, who often won’t have the chance to finish his sentence proclaiming the slump of a given player before said player sends a ball into the bleachers.  Maybe it’s the fact that the history of the Yankees intimidates the largely inexperienced Athletics roster.  Maybe it’s the simple, harsh, right in your face truth, the Yankees are that much better.

We like to dub them the “Evil Empire” of baseball, because they represent everything we claim to despise in baseball.  They spend money on players to fill needs, the keep the players they develop from within, and their every move is closely documented and scrutinized by every single national media outlet.  The problem is this, they aren’t everything we despise in baseball, they are everything we wish our team could be.

I’ve often said that I would be thrilled to have an owner like the late George Steinbrenner, an owner who realized that in order to win you needed to spend money, and in order to make even more money you needed to win.  Not just compete though, competing is never enough, you need to win it all.  There has never been that feeling in Oakland since the days of the Bash Brothers.  During those years it was expected to be competing for and winning championships.  Now, it feels like we are cutting off our nose to spite our face.  And then the mighty Yankees come in and make us look inferior, and it’s aggravating to say the least.

This article may seem like something of a mindless rant, and if you think that, you might be right.  It is just frustrating to see this team show so much promise and ability to win tough games despite all the numbers indicating a different result should be happening, and to see them just fall flat on their faces now really hurts.  This may very well be the beginning of the rest of the season, the second phase of 2012.  The “can we get on a winning streak long enough to sniff .500 again?” phase of 2012.  It was nothing more than a pipe dream to think we’d ever catch the Texas Rangers, and it’s still probably a pipe dream to think we’ll finish ahead of the Los Angeles Angels.  I wasn’t ready to phone it in for the rest of 2012 just yet, but this visit from the Yankees has set in a harsh reality that will be nearly impossible to overcome.

The A’s can still salvage a game from this series, Tommy Milone takes his O.co magic to the hill against the much maligned Hiroki Kuroda of the Yankees.  If recent history is any indication, the personal histories of these two pitchers will likely be reversed.  Or else, my prediction on the Yanks Go Yard podcast will have been spot on (Yankees take first two, Athletics take game 3).  Let’s hope I was right.