Biggest Series of the Year for the Athletics, Seriously…

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Well the A’s finally ended that horrendous 9 game losing streak over the weekend against Kansas City in the second game of the 3 game series. Then proceeded to lose the final game of the series 2-0 and squandering a strong effort by Bartolo Colon. The A’s are probably glad May has come and gone like a very thorough thief in the night where they won only 11 of 27 games and during the month of May and hit a paltry .184 with an  OBP of  .280, SLG of .270, and an OPS of .550.  You might have to pull out the Thesaurus to come up with all of the synonyms that would describe the A’s offense over this past month. Let me start you off feeble, anemic, flimsy, shoddy and you can fill in the rest.

Now with June coming, you would think the A’s would be breathing a sigh of relief but they’re lucky enough to start a 4 game home stand against the AL West leading Hulk Smashing Texas Rangers. Although, there wasn’t very much smashing going on last night when the A’s rookie, Jarrod Parker took the mound and silenced the Rangers bats like a cold blooded assassin. Parker ended up taking a no-hitter into the 8th inning and left a slider up in the zone to Michael Young who promptly escorted the ball into center field with a quick swing of the bat. Parker finished the inning strong and left the game with a line of 8.0 Innings pitched, 1 Hit, 3 BB, 6 K’s, a WHIP of 1.21, and 2.40 ERA which leads all rookies with at least 40 innings thrown.

It also didn’t hurt that the A’s actually brought bats to tonight’s game to the tune of 12 runs. The A’s are finally starting to get back some of the starter’s who have been on the DL and they are slowly beginning to produce. Brandon Inge and Yoenis Cespedes have seemed to have stabilized the line up for the moment but if you remember the Kansas City series an offense explosion one day can turn into a catatonic coma the next. Somehow Bob Melvin needs to keep putting guys in the line up who will be more aggressive in attacking the strike zone like they did last night and maybe the A’s offense can begin to sustain a glimpse of what was seen last night. Oh and please no more shutouts the rest of June Offense, Thanks. Plus the pitching staff needs to do its best to keep the Rangers bats quite just long enough to eek out 3 victories in the series.

The next 3 games will be very telling of the A’s and how their interpretation of the tradeline will start to shape up. So here is a look at tonight’s starter and probable starter’s for the rest of the series. Let’s just hope the A’s can leave off where they did last night and not have blown their offensive wad in the first game of the series. LET”S GO OAKLAND!!!

Tuesday (6/5/12) OAK: Travis Blackley vs TEX: Derek Holland

Wednesday (6/6/12) OAK: Bartolo Colon vs TEX: Colby Lewis

Thursday (6/7/12) OAK: Brandon McCarthy vs TEX: Yu Darvish