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.

Road trips to the east coast proved difficult, lost series and sweeps against AL East opponents the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays brought the team back to Earth with a thud.  The struggles have continued and now the team sits at 20-22, the low watermark of the season, and finds themselves 7.5 games back of the Texas Rangers who just took two out of three in Oakland.

There are some pretty clear reasons why the team was where it was, and is where it is.

The pitching staff has been a disappointment overall.  Thought to be the strength of this team, the starting pitching has taken its lumps. Brett Anderson can’t stay healthy, Jarrod Parker has a 6.86 ERA, and Dan Straily can’t seem to convert his minor league success to the major leagues.  Tommy Milone and A.J. Griffin have been the strongest starters, both with ERA’s in the 3′s, and Bartolo Colon has been essentially the same pitcher he was in 2012.  If the A’s wish to get back into the race, Anderson and Parker will have to be at the forefront of the charge.  If Milone and Griffin are going to be called upon to pitch like aces, the team will likely fall short of their goals in 2013.

The injury bug has been especially cruel to the Athletics so far.  It was presumed before the season began that Bob Melvin would have trouble finding playing time for all 5 of his outfielders.  Yoenis Cespedes, Coco Crisp, and Josh Reddick were the starting three, with Chris Young and Seth Smith filling in the gaps and filling the DH spot.  At this point, Josh Reddick is on the DL and may not be back for a while, Chris Young is hopefully about to be activated, and Coco Crisp just returned from the DL on Wednesday.  Yoenis Cespedes served his time on the DL too with a hand injury.  Factor in the aforementioned health problems of Brett Anderson and it’s pretty easy to see why this team has fallen so far in such a short amount of time.  Players like Michael Taylor and Luke Montz are getting more playing time than they should on a team that is supposed to contend, and the team simply cannot win that way.

May 10, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Oakland Athletics third baseman Josh Donaldson (20) waits for the pitch during that game against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco FIeld. Seattle defeated Oakland 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Perhaps the biggest revelation has been the emergence of Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss as established middle of the order contributors.  Donaldson, the most emphatic of the two has posted an impressive .316/.390/.520 line with 5 home runs, 14 doubles, and a team leading 25 RBI. Moss, while not quite as eye popping has posted a .252/.354/.433 line with 6 home runs and 22 RBI.  There were questions as to whether those two would be able to repeat their breakout performances from 2012, and it appears as if both of them are giving us a firm yes.

The late acquistion of Jed Lowrie has paid significant dividends in the early going.  Much like the outfield the middle infield was expected to be clogged with talent.  Injuries during spring weeded out the possiblities for the A’s.  The hot spring for Eric Sogard made the second base job his, but Lowrie’s hot spring solidified himself as the A’s everyday shortstop.  He has rewarded that decision with a .399/.383/.448 line with 3 home runs, and 14 doubles to go along with 19 RBI.  His defense is a little bit questionable, but he’s made up for it with his bat.  In the absence of a healthy and productive Josh Reddick in the lineup, Lowrie has given the A’s a viable option to hit ahead of Yoenis Cespedes.

If the A’s want to right the ship, they need to get as many important players back as possible, and keep them healthy.  Yoenis Cespedes needs to get hot, red hot like we all know he is capable of.  The pitching staff needs to learn once again how to live up to their potential.  Ryan Cook needs to stop giving us ulcers during his innings.  Sean Doolittle needs to keep doing exactly what he’s doing.  The A’s simply may need to recapture just a little bit of that magic that propelled them to the playoffs in 2012.  It’s still early enough to get things going the right way, but it won’t be early for long.

Apr 20, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Jarrod Parker (11) reacts as he talks with pitching coach Curt Young (41) and catcher Derek Norris (36) on the mound during the fifth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Tribe stormed out of the gates with two solo home runs in the bottom of the 1st inning by Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera.  Parker would get a little wild, hitting Mark Reynolds with a pitch before retiring the side.  Reynolds would be heard from again in the bottom of the 5th when he followed Asdrubal Cabrera’s second homer of the game with a tape measure shot estimated around 460 feet.  Reynolds admired his shot a la Yoenis Cespedes, but when you hit a shot like that I think you’ve earned the right to survey your work.

The 4 home runs Parker allowed matched his season total for 2013.  Parker lasted 5 innings, allowing the 4 ER off the solo homers, he gave up 7 hits altogether,  he walked 2, and struck out 7 in taking the loss.

The A’s were never able to take advantage of a predictably wild Ubaldo Jimenez either, definitely taking part of the blame for this loss.  Ubaldo allowed 4 hits and 3 walks in his 5.2 innings of work, and was on the ropes as he exited the game.  The bases had been loaded after the A’s scored their second run on a sacrifice fly by Yoenis Cespedes, but the struggling Josh Reddick came to bat with a chance to break through his funk.  He was dispatched by the lefty Nick Hagadone on 3 pitches, and a possibly questionable called strike 3 that Reddick didn’t agree with and made his feelings known.

Home plate umpire Angel Hernandez had a questionable strike zone all evening, but his calls worked to the benefit and detriment of both teams, so no one can cry foul.  Bottom line, the team has to make plays and have quality at bats in order for good things to happen, and they didn’t.

The offense was primarily on the shoulders of Yoenis Cespedes, who hit his 6th home run of the season, to make it a 2-1 game at the time.  His sac fly in the 6th made it a 4-2 game.  Josh Donaldson would give the A’s their 3rd run of the game on an RBI single in what would amount to garbage time, to make it a 7-3 game, which would be tonight’s final score.

Cespedes with his 2 RBI, and Brandon Moss with his 2 for 4 night would highlight the offense for the Athletics tonight.  Donaldson’s RBI single was his lone hit tonight.  Reddick, Seth Smith, Adam Rosales and Derek Norris would each add a hit to the A’s total for the night.

Chris Resop relieved Jarrod Parker, and didn’t fare too well, allowing 3 ER in 1.2 innings of work on 1 hit and 3 walks.  Evan Scribner worked 1.1 scoreless innings.

The A’s look to rebound tomorrow night as Tommy Milone (3-3, 3.69 ERA) looks to beat his road demons against Zach McAllister (2-3, 3.30).  The A’s will have to put together at bats of a much higher quality if they want to get this series evened up.