July 14, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Oakland Athletics first baseman Chris Carter (22) hits a home run during the first inning against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-US PRESSWIRE

TURNING POINT:  In a lopsided victory like tonight’s 9-3 contest, it’s hard to pinpoint any moment that the pendulum swung one way or the other, but the Twins had one chance to make this a game again in the bottom of the 6th inning.  Milone got into immediate trouble when he walked Joe Mauer, gave up a single to Josh Willingham, and surrendered a RBI single to Justin Morneau.  After a Trevor Plouffe single the bases were loaded with nobody out.  Designated Hitter Ryan Doumit hit a come-backer to Milone to snuff out the first potential run.  Then Milone induced a double play ball off the bat of Brian Dozier to end the inning and squash the threat.

ON THE MOUND:  Tommy Milone wasn’t at his sharpest tonight, but considering some of the road outings he’s had this year it wasn’t bad at all.  Over his 6 innings of work Milone scattered 10 hits and a walk while allowing just 2 ER with 4 strikeouts.  Milone earned his team leading 9th win of 2012.  Jordan Norberto pitched 1.1 innings and allowed 1 ER on yet another home run by Josh Willingham (His 22nd of the year).  Evan Scribner pitched 0.2 innings and allowed a hit and a walk but no runs.  Jerry Blevins pitched a clean 9th inning to mop up the win for the A’s.

AT THE PLATE:  The A’s had the longball working tonight in impressive form.  Chris Carter hit a 3 run homer, Yoenis Cespedes hit a 2 run homer, and Seth Smith and Brandon Moss added solo shots of their own.  Smith narrowly missed a second homer with his RBI triple in the 9th inning to go along with his long home run.  Josh Reddick helped set the table for the rest of the A’s by going 3-5 and scoring twice.  Kurt Suzuki showed some signs of life with 2 hits of his own, and scored a run on Smith’s triple.  Jemile Weeks and Cliff Pennington were the only two who didn’t join the hit parade tonight.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  As everyone continues to get more excited about what we have seen lately from the A’s who are now 45-43 and remain just 1.5 games out of the 2nd wild card spot.  For a team that has any visions of contention, winning series against teams who are down like the Minnesota Twins is essential.  The A’s have hit 88 home runs this season in 88 games, pretty impressive considering they hit 114 all of last year.  The A’s will go for the revenge sweep against the Twins tomorrow afternoon as they prepare for a huge test next week.  Jarrod Parker takes the mound, looking to rebound from his shaky outing against the Seattle Mariners last weekend.  Nevertheless Parker has a 5-4 record with a 2.86 ERA, he’ll oppose Brian Duensing (1-5, 4.11 ERA).  The A’s can make a real statement by continuing to punish pitchers with the home run ball and sweeping the Twins in their own home.  Time to put the pedal to the metal.

This will be a line drive in the box score. (Brace Hemmelgarn-US PRESSWIRE)

TURNING POINT:  Ryan Cook came into today’s game riding a historic streak of his own, having thrown 23 scoreless innings to start the season, and perhaps the pressure of that streak finally had gotten to the big right hander.  He extended the streak to 23.1 innings before the game began to unravel.  A Joe Mauer single, and an unlikely stolen base started the rally off.  Then after a very questionable strike zone reared its ugly head Josh Willingham walked.  This was the point where I think most fans knew the streak was about to end, Cook obviously didn’t have it, and the baseball Gods weren’t there to back him up.  Justin Morneau gets credit for snapping the scoreless streak with a “double” down the left field line that was really an ultimate jam shot that fell just a couple feet within the foul line and Collin Cowgill had to run for months to reach the ball as it sat in the grass.  Ryan Doumit managed to drive in Willingham with a sacrifice fly to put the Twins up for good.

ON THE HILL: Travis Blackley played the role of spot starter quite admirably today, although he likely won’t get another assuming Brandon McCarthy returns when eligible on June 2.  He’s done more than enough to justify staying on the roster though when McCarthy does come back.  His 5 innings, allowing just 1 ER on 3 hits and a walk, striking out 3 probably could have been extended another inning, but the A’s chose to play it safe and pull him for Jordan Norberto in the 6th.  That turned out to be a bad idea, Norberto eagerly coughed up the first lead the A’s had built, 3-1 at the time, and cost Blackley the chance for a win.  After Norberto exited with 0.2 innings on his record, Grant Balfour came in to clean up the mess he had made, Balfour added another clean inning of his own in the 7th.  Then came the fateful outing by Ryan Cook, his first bad line of the season was all 2′s, 2 ER on 2 hits and 2 walks, now that he has an ERA it sits at 0.75.

14 and counting for the People's Right Fielder. (Brace Hemmelgarn-US PRESSWIRE)

AT THE PLATE:  Everyone in the starting lineup reached base one way or another via walk or hit, except for Coco Crisp.  It’s hard to say what the problem is with him right now, but it’s safe to say it’s serious.  Aside from the ball he hit right back at Matt Capps in the 9th inning, he’s not making solid contact.  A day off or two may be what Coco needs to get his mind and his bat right.  But on the bright side, the bats did wake up from their week long slumber a little.  Notably Collin Cowgill had his second 3 hit game in a row, first time he’s ever done that, his AVG has skyrocketed to .234 and his hustle on the field has not gone unnoticed.  The big story has to be the continued power stroke of Josh Reddick, he came just a few feet away from his second multi HR game of 2012, but had to settle for a HR and a triple.  Whatever it is he has found in his swing, he needs to keep it locked in because once the cavalry arrives he’ll be in the middle of an order with some guys who may actually be able to hit.

FINAL THOUGHTS: They say bad teams find ways to lose games, and right now the Athletics are doing exactly that.  It’s hard to pinpoint a single reason for this swoon, it certainly doesn’t help though that the team fails miserably in RISP situations, or only succeeds in NOOB situations (No One On Base, hence the solo home runs).  The battle against the Twins and themselves continues tomorrow evening at Target Field (as noted a few times on Twitter by A’s fans, best TV camera angle for pitching in the league).  We’ll get a nice view of Jarrod Parker coming off a strong start agains the Bronx Bombers, he comes in with a 1-2 record and a 3.38 ERA.  He’ll take on Eric Sogard (don’t know where to send credit for that joke, but I know I saw it somewhere)… I mean Minnesota native Cole De Vries who will make his first start at Target Field after allowing 3ER on 5 innings in his MLB debut.  This is a perfect opportunity for the A’s to take out some frustration against a very inexperienced pitcher who will most definitely be feeling some butterflies in front of his hometown crowd, and I assume a contingent of friends and family, lets hope they can give him nightmares as he realizes his dream.

If you feel like checking out something perhaps a little less depressing, bounce on over to the great Fansided site “Seedlings to Stars” where Wally Fish takes a peek at how some AL West prospects are faring in 2012 in the 2012 Fish Watch: AL West – May Edition.

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