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Quick thoughts on Tuesday's excellent slate of major league action …

• A's 1, Rangers 0. Yu Darvish just doesn't know how to win. This is a big victory for the A's as they take the first two of the three-game set. Yoenis Cespedes' home run, a 418-foot shot to dead center, was all Oakland needed as Dan Straily pitched seven scoreless innings. The A's are like that bug you have to step on six times before you finally kill it; they just keeping coming back and surprising you. After going 4-10 during a recent stretch, people were already starting to write Oakland off -- "last season was a fluke!" -- but now the A's have won five in a row, four by one run. Are the A's in the Rangers' heads after last season's dramatic surge to the division title? Probably not, but it's food for thought. As for Cespedes, his season line doesn't look all that impressive -- .211/.283/.461 -- but the A's are now 21-12 when he plays, and the guy does seem to deliver a lot of big hits. As well as the Rangers have played, it's worth noting they've played the easiest schedule in the major leagues so far. Some of that is a function of playing in the American League West, in which the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels have been terrible (Texas is 9-3 against those two clubs). So that might not change (the A's are 11-1 against the Astros and Angels). It's also fair to point out the Rangers swept the Boston Red Sox, won three of four against the Detroit Tigers this past weekend and took two of three earlier from the Tampa Bay Rays.
• Big hit of the day: Travis Snider's pinch-hit grand slam for the Pirates as they rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Cubs. Matt Garza looked good for the Cubs in his season debut but departed after five innings, and the awful Cubs bullpen was awful.
• Or maybe Nate McLouth's home run was the big hit of the day, as the Baltimore Orioles snapped a six-game losing streak. McLouth's homer came off lefty Vidal Nuno leading off the 10th; kind of interesting that Buck Showalter didn't hit for McLouth, who is platooned against lefties. Other exciting Orioles news: Kevin Gausman, the fourth pick in the 2012 draft, who has been throwing upper-90s heat in Double-A, will start Thursday. Here's video of Gausman getting his 10th strikeout the other night.
• Or maybe Evan Gattis had the big hit -- a pinch-hit game-tying homer in the ninth with two outs, with the Braves winning in the 10th. Like his last homer: love Freddie Freeman's reaction in the dugout. He can't believe it, either.
• Raise your hand if you had Jose Quintana taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Red Sox. Put your hand down.

In April, Jose Bautista had turned into a three true outcomes type of player: home run, walk or strikeout. He hit seven home runs and had a slugging percentage over .500, but was hitting just .200.

Was he just finding his stroke as he returned from last year's injury problems? Or was he no longer the MVP-caliber hitter of 2010 and 2011, when he hit 54 and 43 home runs, drew walks, and hit .260 and then .302?

He hit his first two home runs of May on Sunday in a 12-4 pasting of the Red Sox to raise his overall batting to .246/.360/.544 -- respectable, if not quite 2011-level Bautista. And the Blue Jays need 2011-level Bautista if they have any hope of recovering from their awful start.

I'm not quite sure he's there yet. While Bautista can crush any fastball -- he's hitting .333 with six home runs in 51 at-bats ending with a fastball this season -- it was his production against "soft" stuff that allowed him to hit above .300 in 2011. Check out these two charts on his batting average against soft stuff in 2011, and then the past two seasons:



As you can see, that's a lot of red (hot) in 2011 and a lot of blue (cold) since. This year, he's 7-for-51 (.137) with three home runs against soft stuff. He split his home runs on Sunday -- one came off a first-pitch Ryan Dempster fastball, the other off an 0-1 83 mph slider from Clayton Mortensen. Bautista is a dead pull hitter -- only one home run to center and one to right-center over the past two seasons -- which can leave him vulnerable to breaking stuff on the outside part of the plate.

I haven't seen enough evidence that he's going to punish those pitches like he did a couple years ago, so I would guess he'll be prone to ups and downs throughout the season. He's still a huge threat at the plate, but not the MVP bat of 2011.

REST OF THE WEEKEND

Three stars
1. Shelby Miller, Cardinals. One hit. Twenty-seven down. In a 3-0 win over the Rockies on Friday, the St. Louis rookie became the fifth pitcher since 1961 to allow the first batter to reach base and then retire 27 in a row, joining John Lackey (2006 Angels), Jerry Reuss (1982 Dodgers), Jim Bibby (1981 Pirates) and Woodie Fryman (1966 Pirates). Miller had the Rockies guessing wrong -- or merely looking -- all night long, as he got 30 called strikes, the second-most by a starter this season. Eight of those closed out Miller's 13 strikeouts. Just a dominant performance. In fact, for all the attention given to Matt Harvey this year, compare the two young right-handers:

Miller: 5-2, 1.58 ERA, 45.2 IP, 29 H, 3 HR, 11 BB, 51 SO, .179 AVG
Harvey: 4-0, 1.44 ERA, 56.1 IP, 27 H, 3 HR, 14 BB, 62 SO, .142 AVG

2. Adam Wainwright, Cardinals. Not to be outdone, Wainwright took a no-hitter into the eighth inning on Saturday, finishing with a two-hit shutout in another 3-0 win for the Cards. Wainwright improved to 5-2 with a 2.30 ERA and had strong words about his rookie teammate: "You follow Roger Clemens a couple times like I have been, it makes you focus a little bit more," he said. "Once you see Shelby mow through a lineup like he has all year, you want to go out there and do it, too." Kudos also to Cards manager Mike Matheny for leaving in Miller to throw 113 pitches, and Wainwright to throw 120. In this day when managers are too willing to yank starters at 100 pitches, it is good to see a manager let his guys go the distance.

3. Chris Sale, White Sox, and Jon Lester, Red Sox. Two more one-hit shutouts, Lester on Friday, Sale on Sunday. Can't anyone here hit anymore? Lester got 12 ground-ball outs as he joined Pedro Martinez (2000), Hideo Nomo (2001), Curt Schilling (2007) and Josh Beckett (2011) as Red Sox pitchers to throw a one-hit, no-walk shutout in the live ball era. But Sale threw his wearing the so-ugly-they're-cool 1983 throwback uniforms.

Clutch performance of the weekend
Evan Longoria, for his two-out, two-run, bottom-of-the-ninth home run to give the Rays a dramatic 8-7 win over the Padres on Saturday. My favorite part: There's some sort of picnic area in left-center (yes, "picnic area" and "domed stadium" is kind of an oxymoron) where the ball landed, and it looks like half the fans out there didn't realize it was a game-winning home run.

First off, credit Ben Zobrist for a drawing the two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch from Huston Street, working back from a 1-2 count. Street knew that was the batter he had to get. "You get him 1-2, you've got to make a pitch," he said. "I'm frustrated about that just as much as leaving a pitch to Longoria in the middle of the plate." The Rays had led 6-2 before the Padres scored five in the seventh, leading Joe Maddon to say it would have been one of Tampa's worst three losses of the year. "But you can't go to the dance playing like that. When you get leads, you've got to put the other team away. I'm not happy with that. That's inappropriate. That's got to stop," he said.

The Rays finished the sweep on Sunday, however -- their fifth win in a row -- and clawed a game over .500.

Best game
Well, that Padres-Rays game was pretty good. Miller's game was mesmerizing. Toronto's win over Boston on Saturday featured Adam Lind's go-ahead home run in the ninth off Junichi Tazawa, after the Red Sox had tied it in the bottom of the eighth. But I'll go with Cleveland's 7-6 win over Justin Verlander and the Tigers on Saturday. Or Cleveland's 4-3 win on Sunday, in which the Indians tied it in the ninth and won it in the 10th, leading to this quote from Mark Reynolds, who delivered the go-ahead single: "With two strikes, I'm just trying to shorten up my swing and get something into play," he said. Wait ... since when does Reynolds shorten up his swing? Gotta love baseball.

The Indians took two of three from the Tigers to move into a first-place tie with Detroit.

Hitter on the rise: Anthony Rizzo, Cubs
He had six home runs through April 21, but his average fell to .173 after a three-strikeout game on April 25. In 16 games, he's hit .419/.478/.694, with three more home runs, eight doubles and nearly as many walks (six) as strikeouts (eight). He has six three-hit games in that stretch, and he's showing he's more than just an all-or-nothing slugger. He's showing he's a guy who is going to be the Cubs' cleanup hitter for a long time.

Pitcher on the rise: Zach McAllister, Indians
Don't believe in the Indians? Don't believe in the rotation? McAllister is starting to look like another solid option alongside Justin Masterson. He didn't get a decision in Sunday's game but pitched a solid six innings. He's 3-3 with a 2.68 ERA and a decent 33/13 SO/BB ratio in 43.2 innings. He's a fly ball pitcher but has allowed just five home runs in seven starts. If he keeps the ball on the right side of the fence he has a chance to be successful.

Brandon Phillips play of the week
This one was pretty.

Happy Mother's Day
Pablo Sandoval uses his pink bat to launch one into McCovey Cove. Tim Lincecum backed up Sandoval with his best outing of the year as the Giants took the final three of four from the Braves. Tough stretch coming up for the Giants, however: 20 of their next 30 on the road, including series in Toronto, Colorado, St. Louis, Arizona, Pittsburgh and Atlanta.

Team on the rise: Indians
They're 12-2 over the past 14, hitting .305 with 24 home runs -- and that stretch does not include that 19-6 win over Houston earlier in the season. The pitching staff has a 2.98 ERA with 13 home runs allowed. The Indians lead the majors in home runs and OPS, and guys like Jason Kipnis, Asdrubal Cabrera and Lonnie Chisenhall have room to do better.

Team on the fall: A's
Awful week, losing four to Cleveland and then two of three to Seattle. They scored more than three runs just once in seven games as injuries to outfielders Coco Crisp, Chris Young and Josh Reddick have left them playing Michael Taylor and Brandon Moss in the outfield (with Daric Barton or Nate Freiman replacing Moss at first base). Jarrod Parker is still scuffling (6.86 ERA, four walks in 6.1 innings on Saturday). The A's just need to get healthy, and they didn't hit their stride last year until July (they were 37-42 and 13 games out on July 1), so they may be down now, but hardly out.

Dear umpires,

You blew it.

Sincerely,
Baseball fans

* * * *

The Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians played a good baseball game on a sleepy Wednesday night in early May, the Indians winning 4-3. The A's scored three runs in the fourth off Justin Masterson -- bunching the only four hits they would get off Masterson in his seven innings. One of those innings that can just happen in the middle of an otherwise strong pitching performance. The Indians scored twice in the fifth without getting the ball out of the infield -- two walks, an infield single, a force at home and then a potential double play that Adam Rosales threw in the dirt and past first baseman Daric Barton, allowing two runs to score. Just one of those innings that happen from time to time during the long grind of a baseball season.

Then the Indians took a 4-3 lead in the sixth doing what they've been doing a lot of lately -- hitting home runs. Nick Swisher and then Carlos Santana connected off A.J. Griffin fastballs with long home runs. Swisher swatted a 2-1 four-seamer that was left up and away (catcher John Jaso wanted the pitch in) for a 404-foot blast to right-center, and then Santana clocked a nearly identical 3-1 pitch well over the center-field fence. One of those innings that happen when you fall behind in the count and your fastball checks in at only 90 mph.

We should be talking about Cleveland and its ninth win in 10 games, but instead the umpires blew a call in the top of the ninth. With two outs, Rosales drilled a Chris Perez fastball off the top of the left-center wall for a double. Replays seemed to clearly show the ball hitting off the railing behind the wall for a game-tying home run.

After a review that lasted nearly as long as the Twins-Red Sox game, the umpires emerged from the replay dungeon. Second-base umpire Angel Hernandez pointed to second base. Double. A's manager Bob Melvin proceeded to get very angry. The on-site consensus agreed that it was a home run:

Call not reversed. Unreal, Melvin tossed. Everyone in press box believes ball went out. That is horrible, #Athletics

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) May 9, 2013

After the game, Hernandez told reporters there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the call. Except there was. What's the point of having a replay system if you're still going to blow the call? Did the four umpires all watch the same replays and all agree? Hard to believe. Even Indians fans were tweeting that it was a home run.

Perez loaded the bases before finally get a ground ball back to the mound to end it -- Perez sprinted over to first base to record the out himself -- but the blown call tainted the final result. Suddenly, just another game in May could end up having huge ramifications by the time we get to the final week in September. What if the A's miss the playoffs by one win, or fall short by a game in the division race? A's fans will remember this game, that's for sure. The right call wouldn't have guaranteed them a victory, of course, but it at least would have extended the game and let the players decide the outcome.

I'm not usually one to knock the umpires, and every mistake they make gets thrust into the spotlight, fairly or not. But some of the recent negative publicity could have easily been avoided -- the David Price/Tom Hallion altercation in which Hallion ended up publicly calling Price a liar; the ridiculous ejection the other day of Bryce Harper by John Hirschbeck (MLB decided not to fine Harper, leading to his classic quote: "That's great. I'm glad I don't have to pay the $1,000. That's another $1,000 in my pocket"); and now this blown call that may have cost the A's the game.

None of this should be happening. We should be talking about Swisher and his joyous trot around the bases, his smile as wide as Lake Erie, and then his even more joyful reaction when Santana tied it a few moments later. We should be talking about Santana's incredible start (.358/.455/.674) or how the Indians have hit 21 home runs during this 9-1 stretch and averaged 6.7 runs per game. We should be talking about Barton's return to the majors and his mountain-man beard that would make Josh Reddick proud, or whether or not Rosales should have turned that double play.

Instead we're talking about Angel Hernandez, railings and another fiasco by the umpires. They have to do better.

Thoughts on Sunday's games ...

• A brutal weekend for the suddenly disintegrating Dodgers. Swept by the Giants, including two on walk-off home runs. Hanley Ramirez, just activated from the DL earlier in the weekend, landed back on it after straining a hamstring on Friday. Adrian Gonzalez didn't start any of the three games because of a stiff neck but pinch-hit on Sunday, so I guess his neck was OK for one at-bat but not four. Meanwhile, Matt Kemp is still sitting on one home run, they've already used nine starting pitchers (rookie Matt Magill couldn't get out of the second inning on Saturday) and Sunday's lineup included Nick Punto, Juan Uribe, Luis Cruz and Dee Gordon. You're not winning anything with that group. Heck, Clayton Kershaw may ask for a trade not a contract extension. As for Sunday's game, Matt Cain took a 4-0 lead into the eighth before tiring and walking Kemp. The Giants' bullpen allowed Kemp and two more runners to score before finally closing the door on the 4-3 win. I'd say Cain finally looked like vintage Cain but, again, it wasn't much of a lineup he faced. The Dodgers are 13-17, they're second-to-last in runs scored in the National League, they're minus-27 in run differential and their best player isn't hitting. Right now, they're a bad baseball team, and showing no signs they have the talent to dig out of this.
• The Orioles beat the Angels 8-4 to take three out of four in Anaheim. Manny Machado continues to impress with the bat almost as much as he has impressed in the field, hitting his fifth home run and improving his batting line to .309/.352/.522. The Orioles finished 7-4 on their longest road trip of the season and have won five of their past six series. How loaded is third base in the American League? You have Miguel Cabrera, Adrian Beltre and Evan Longoria, and now Machado, the underrated Kyle Seager in Seattle and Josh Donaldson, off to a good start with the A's.
• Speaking of Donaldson, his home run off Boone Logan in the eighth was the decisive run in Oakland's 5-4 win over the Yankees. The key decision, however, came in the bottom of the ninth when Brett Gardner singled with two outs off Grant Balfour and with Robinson Cano up was wild pitched to second. Bob Melvin elected to walk Cano -- the potential winning run -- a risky move and one that looked good when Vernon Wells struck out. Essentially, Melvin increased his chances of winning (Wells more likely to make an out than Cano) while simultaneously increasing his chances of losing (by putting the go-ahead on base). What he did was decrease the chance of a tie (because of the lesser chance of a game-tying hit). Interesting decision but not one you see too often.
• Bryce Harper got ejected, the second ejection of his career. Seems like umpire John Hirshbeck got the check-swing call correct (the pitch was probably a strike anyway), but it certainly appears like he got a little itchy with the trigger finger. Come on, umps, the game isn't about you.
• Nice win for the Royals over the White Sox. Billy Butler tied it in the bottom of the ninth with a two-run double with two outs and then they won it in the 10th. The Tigers beat up on the hapless Astros this weekend but the Royals stayed a half-game behind and have won four in a row. They can sweep the White Sox in Monday's makeup game. I still don't know what to make of the Royals. The pitching has been terrific but Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Salvador Perez and Jeff Francoeur have combined for three home runs. The optimist says that even when the pitching inevitably regresses the offense will start picking up the slack. Are you optimistic, Royals fans?

In Tim Hudson's major league debut, Tony Phillips was his second baseman, Olmedo Saenz played third base and Tim Raines played left field. Hudson doesn't seem like he's that old, but that was back in 1999 in a game at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, which means he has been doing this baseball thing for a bit of time now.

Hudson pitched five innings and struck out 11 Padres, leaving with a no-decision.

"He's got outstanding stuff," Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane said after that game. "He needs to learn the league, learn pitch selection and get better with experience. He's an athlete and has the opportunity to be an outstanding pitcher in this league for a long time."

Beane was right about that one.

He also went 1-for-1 at the plate with a walk. The man always could hit. He earned his first win five days later over the Los Angeles Dodgers, earning a beer shower from his teammates. "Who knows where Hudson goes from here? For now, he's a show worth seeing, a slender right-hander who can throw three pitches for strikes," wrote Gary Peterson in the Contra Costa Times.

Fourteen years later, Hudson is still going strong -- strong enough that there's an outside shot he's heading to the Hall of Fame. As Beane said on that June night so many years ago, Hudson is an athlete. He was a star two-way player at Auburn and that athleticism has helped him adapt through the years as his stuff has changed and his velocity has dropped. It has helped him to recover quickly from Tommy John surgery in 2008. It has helped to overcome his status as a short right-hander (he's listed at 6-foot-1, but that article written after his first start said he was 5-11, which he may reach in his spikes). It has helped him to remain a solid, underrated starter at the age of 37, a key reason for Atlanta's success in recent seasons.

Hudson beat the Nationals 8-1 on Tuesday night to earn his 200th career win and did so in style, taking a no-hitter into the fifth while pitching seven brilliant innings, doubling off the wall in left-center to start a two-run rally in the second and then hitting on opposite-field home run off Zach Duke -- and off Bryce Harper's glove -- in the fifth inning for his third career homer. That's a night worthy of another beer shower.

"It was a fun game," Hudson said. "Obviously, it's kind of surreal. No one expects to hit a home run."

For the Braves, it was their fifth victory in five games against the Nationals. For Hudson, it was one of the defining moments of his career, as he became the third active pitcher to reach 200 wins (joining Andy Pettitte and Roy Halladay) and the 110th pitcher reach 200.

As for that Hall of Fame thing, we can start here, with the highest winning percentages since 1901 for pitchers with 200 wins:

1. Whitey Ford (236-106, .690)
2. Pedro Martinez (219-100, .687)
3. Lefty Grove (300-141, .680)
4. Christy Mathewson (373-188, .665)
5. Roy Halladay (201-103, .661)
6. Roger Clemens (354-184, .658)
7. TIM HUDSON (200-105, .656)
8. Mordecai Brown (239-130, .648)
9. Randy Johnson (303-166, .646)
10. Pete Alexander (373-208, .642)

The next three guys are Mike Mussina, Jim Palmer and Andy Pettitte. OK, this is all pretty impressive company, and while winning percentage is obviously team-dependent to a certain extent and Hudson has played on two successful franchises in Oakland and Atlanta, it's certainly not insignificant. It's at least a starting point to put Hudson in a Hall of Fame discussion if he continues pitching well for another three or four years and gets into the 240-win range.

His career ERA of 3.43 may not blow you away, but remember that he pitched much of his career in the middle of the high-octane PED-era. His park- and league-adjusted ERA+ of 125 is tied with Palmer and John Smoltz at 20th among the 89 pitchers since 1901 to win 200 games. That's a better adjusted ERA than Juan Marichal, Bob Feller, Don Drysdale, Warren Spahn, Bert Blyleven, Tom Glavine, Gaylord Perry and Steve Carlton, to name a few big names.

The point: The guy can pitch. Sure, the ERA will eventually rise a few ticks and the winning percentage will likely drop a few points as he ages. Some would argue that Hudson has never been the best pitcher in his league, which is a fair statement. But a lot of Hall of Fame pitchers were never the best in their league and Hudson has been one of the best -- seven times in the top 10 in ERA, seven times in the top 10 in WAR (with a best of 7.5 in 2003, ranking third among AL pitchers), seven times in wins and six times in innings. His career WAR of 54.4 is 77th all-time.

He's not there yet, which is OK. That means hopefully we'll get to continue watching the guy with the great sinker for a few more years. Have a beer with your shower, Tim.

Keith Law has a column up on why the Reds should bat Joey Votto second. Eric Karabell and I discuss that idea and other things managers should do with their batting orders that could help them score a few more runs. We do present the worst lineup construction of the year but also point out some smart moves managers have made.

You cannot lose a game like this if you're the Los Angeles Angels, not when leading 6-2 in the eighth inning, not while coming off losing three of four to Seattle, not when your team is struggling and staring at a second straight disastrous April.

The Angels did lose to the Oakland A's, when Brandon Moss' two-run walk-off homer in the 19th inning gave the A's the dramatic 10-8 victory in a game that lasted 392 minutes and required 597 pitches to compete. It might end up being the game of the year. The painful defeat dropped the Angels to 9-16. They're already 7 games behind the Rangers and 5 games behind the A's in the AL West, and you have to wonder if long-time manager Mike Scioscia will survive much longer.

I made it into the 17th inning before calling it a night (hey, it was 4 a.m. on the East Coast!). Some thoughts on a game that began with A's fans chanting "Thank you, Josh! Thank you, Josh!" in regards to the fly ball that Josh Hamilton dropped last year in the final game of the regular season, helping the A's beat the Rangers to win the division title, and ended with Moss swatting a Barry Enright changeup over the wall in right:

• The thing to remember about Scioscia is that GM Jerry DiPoto didn't hire him; he inherited him. After a second straight slow start, maybe the Angels will make a change just to shake things up. The Angels have missed the postseason the past three seasons, and are now looking at a fourth straight October on the bench if they don't turn things around in a hurry. That doesn't mean there's an obvious replacement available (how about Joe Torre on an interim basis?) and maybe the Angels don't want to signal panic, but I would say it is time to panic. The Angels might also have to consider that Don Mattingly isn't exactly on firm ground with the Dodgers, who might happily scoop up their popular former catcher, a turn of events that could be a PR disaster for the Angels.
• Look, everybody knows this team was built around Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton. Trout is off to a slow start, Pujols hit two home runs on Monday but is hitting a mediocre .265/.359/.439 and Hamilton is hitting .202/.246/.298. He looked terrible in going 0-for-8, with several ugly swings, especially against left-handers. He looks pretty helpless against lefties, getting tied up inside and is hitting .172 off them with 15 strikeouts and one walk in 32 plate appearances.
• Kudos to relievers Jerome Williams and Brett Anderson (who was scheduled to start for Oakland but scratched because of a sore ankle) for soaking up innings. Williams deserved to earn the win after the Angels took the lead in the top of the 15th on a bases-loaded walk to J.B. Shuck that left Anderson barking at home-plate ump Kerwin Danley as he walked off the mound. (He did retire Trout to escape the jam). Josh Donaldson began the bottom of the 15th with a routine grounder that second baseman Howie Kendrick bobbled, but Pujols simply dropped the throw. Derek Norris walked but Williams got a double play before Adam Rosales' two-out single tied it up.
• Anderson finally left after 5.1 innings, but Jerry Blevins threw 1.2 scoreless innings for the win. Williams went six. While Anderson's outing was a unique situation, Williams showed the value in having a good long relief option in the pen. A guy who can pitch multiple in extra innings is more valuable than having a third LOOGY in your pen.
• The A's delivered with two outs all night. In the eighth, Melvin hit Chris Young for Josh Reddick when Scioscia brought in lefty Scott Downs, and Young singled to make the score 7-6. Scioscia ended up bringing in closer Ernesto Frieri for a four-out save anyway, but why not bring him in to face the struggling Reddick? He should have anticipated that Melvin would go to Young there. In the ninth, Yoenis Cespedes (who hit a big game-tying home run on Sunday) came through with a two-out blast off the left-center fence to score Coco Crisp.
• Mark Trumbo hit a monster 475-foot moon shot in the second inning, tied with Anthony Rizzo for the longest home run this year. According to ESPN Stats & Info, it was the longest home run in Oakland since the ESPN Home Run Tracker began measuring home runs (in 2006), and the ball left Trumbo's bat at 120.1 mph, the fastest of any home run this season (by 3 mph).
• The few fans left at the end of the game were chanting the names of A's announcers Ray Fosse and Ken Korach.
• Moss gave himself the shaving cream pie during the postgame interview. Gotta love the A's.

1. I am not a liar 2. I would not make that stuff up 3. My own dad doesn't speak to me that way 4. Again I am not a liar #accountability

— David Price (@DAVIDprice14) April 28, 2013

Think our entire dugout would ERUPT cause an ump told me to throw the ball over the plate? No, I'm sorry that wouldnt happen #accountability

— David Price (@DAVIDprice14) April 28, 2013

Here's the most important takeaway from the David Price-Tom Hallion incident on Sunday: Hallion missed the call.

Price thought he had struck out Dewayne Wise to end the seventh inning on a pitch on the outside of the corner. He even took a step to the dugout, but Hallion didn't ring up Wise. Price got Wise on the next pitch but after the game said Hallion swore at him.

"I'm walking off the mound, I'm just mad at myself," Price said. "I didn't say a single word or look at him. He [Hallion] yells at me." Hallion told a pool reporter, "I'll come right out bluntly and say he's a liar. I said, 'Just throw the ball.' That's all I said to him."

Something is fishy, but let's start here. Don't call the player a liar if you got the call wrong. Below is the location of the five pitches to Wise; the fourth one is the one in question.

According to ESPN Stats & Info data, Hallion didn't have a good game on Sunday, with a correct call percentage of 83 percent: Out of 199 pitches that were taken in the game, he missed on 33 ball-strike calls. (Price benefited from some bad calls as well.) The league average is 87 percent, so while 83 percent doesn't appear drastically worse than average, it is -- that would be in the bottom-10th percentile of the league. Out of 200 pitches, we're talking a difference of eight pitches, which is certainly enough to potentially help swing the game's outcome.

Is Hallion a bad umpire? We can't go off one game, so let's check the season numbers: He ranks 64th of the 74 umpires who have umped at least one game behind home plate, with a correct percentage of 85.3. But that's only seven games. What about last year? Hallion ranked 66th of 82 umpires at 86.3 percent. In 2011, Hallion ranked 65th of 83 umpires. I think the trend is pretty clear: Hallion isn't very good at calling balls and strikes. He's not the worst, but he's a long way from the best.

He's a crew chief who began his major league career in 1985; he should know better than to offer a comment when asked about Price, let alone call the player a liar. Even if there was a misunderstanding, he should keep his mouth shut; umpires should always remain in the shadow.

In the end, the missed call to Wise didn't matter. Wise grounded out, and the Rays broke open a 3-3 game with three runs in the eighth and two in the ninth to give Price his first win of the season. But this little incident is a reminder: It's never good news when you're reading about umpires. We're stuck with them -- and the job is tough -- but we shouldn't be stuck with umpires who publicly call out pitchers they have to call balls and strikes on.

REST OF THE WEEKEND
Three stars
1. Anibal Sanchez, Tigers. Sanchez did something Justin Verlander hasn't done, something Jack Morris or Jim Bunning or Hal Newhouser never did in a Tigers uniform: He struck out 17 batters in beating the Braves 1-0 on Friday night, the first win of an impressive sweep for the Tigers as they outscored the Braves 25-7. Sanchez set the Tigers' franchise record for strikeouts -- Mickey Lolich twice fanned 16 in 1969 -- and did it in eight innings. Dan Uggla and Freddie Freeman each fanned four times, as Atlanta K'd 18 times altogether. Sanchez also became just the fifth AL pitcher since 1920 to fan at least 17 with one walk or fewer, joining Roger Clemens (twice), Johan Santana, Vida Blue and Luis Tiant.

2. Jordan Zimmermann, Nationals. Zimmermann tossed a one-hit shutout over the Reds on Friday -- a night after Gio Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano had one-hit the Reds. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Zimmermann didn't allow a single hard-hit ball and was especially dominant with his slider, throwing it a season-high 20 times as the Reds went 0-for-8 against it. Amazingly, the Reds became the fourth team since 1920 to have one or fewer in back-to-back games, joining the 2008 Astros, 1996 Tigers and 1965 Mets.

3. Russell Martin, Pirates. The Pirates took two out of three from the Cardinals, with Martin hitting a big home run in Saturday's 5-3 win and two more in Sunday's 9-0 shutout. The Pirates are 8-2 in their past 10 games, winning series against the Cardinals, Phillies and Braves.

Clutch performance of the weekend
Yoenis Cespedes, A's. With Cespedes on the DL, the A's had lost eight of nine. They were staring at an 8-6 deficit when Cespedes stepped in with one out and one on in the bottom of the ninth in his first game since April 12. With Orioles closer Jim Johnson having pitched in four of the team's previous five games, Buck Showalter had lefty Brian Matusz face Cespedes, but Cespedes ripped a low slider out to left-center and tied the game with a long home run, and the A's won in the 10th on a throwing error by third baseman Manny Machado (who tried to throw out a runner at third on a sac bunt).

Best game
Padres 8, Giants 7 (Saturday). The Giants jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings, but the Padres rallied for six off Barry Zito in the bottom of the fourth (including a great move by Bud Black to hit for pitcher Eric Stults with Jesus Guzman, who delivered a two-run single). The Giants retook the lead, but the Padres tied it up in the bottom of the seventh. Both bullpens were stellar into the 12th, with the Padres finally beating Giants closer Sergio Romo when Marco Scutaro booted what could have been an inning-ending double-play ball. OK, the Zimmermann game was pretty good as well -- he outdueled Homer Bailey and threw just 91 pitches while Bailey threw just 89 in seven innings. Good luck seeing another game this year that features just 194 pitches.

Hitter on the rise: Brandon Crawford, Giants
Is the light-hitting defensive whiz really hitting .291/.361/.547? He hit his fifth home run on Saturday -- one more than he hit last season.

Pitcher on the rise: Lance Lynn, Cardinals
After a sluggish start, some fans wondered whether Lynn -- who dropped 40 pounds in the offseason -- had dropped too much weight. But he's allowed just three hits and one run over 14 innings in his past two starts.

Team on the rise: Yankees
Wait a minute, they've made the playoffs every year except one since 1995! What are they rising from? What about preseason predictions of their demise? The Yankees swept the Blue Jays over the weekend, the bats are hitting home runs, the rotation is solid, David Phelps and David Robertson have pitched some key innings in the pen and Mariano Rivera looks like he only has another seven or eight years in him. The Yankees have some overachievers early on (Vernon Wells, the now-injured Francisco Cervelli), but as long as CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Andy Pettitte continue to pitch well, they should hang in the AL East hunt.

Team on the fall: Angels
The Giants have lost five straight, including a sweep to the Padres, but the Angels lost three of four in Seattle and are staring at the same lousy April they had a year ago. Will Mike Scioscia still be managing the club this time next week?

The final weekend of April is upon us and while it's still too early for most teams struggling in the standings to panic, that doesn't mean there won't be some panicking anyway. For example, big things were expected from the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels, but barring a big winning streak to close April those teams will start May with more losses than wins. This weekend the Blue Jays visit Yankee Stadium, while the Angels will be sleeping in Seattle, and the pressure is on. Here is what else you need to know for this weekend:

Revenge! Earlier this month defending division champs Cincinnati and Washington met in Ohio, and the Reds had the edge, taking the first game 15-0 and the third game 6-3, beating Stephen Strasburg. This series began on Thursday with a blowout Nationals win, and continues through the weekend. This could certainly be a playoff preview, but will the Nationals still be relying on Saturday starter Dan Haren by October? And what about the Reds with rookie lefty Tony Cingrani, scheduled to start Sunday? Haren hasn't retired a hitter in the sixth inning of any of his four starts, and while he searches for answers, don't be shocked when the Nationals upgrade as the year goes on. Cingrani has been terrific, and Sunday will be a test, but regardless of statistics he could be headed back to the minors soon when Johnny Cueto is healthy.

Surprises no more: A year ago today the Baltimore Orioles and Oakland Athletics seemed more likely to be last-place teams rather than playoff entrants, but the rest was history. Each team is off to a strong start and they'll continue their series, which also began Thursday (with an Orioles victory), in the Bay Area. Right-hander Bartolo Colon comes off a rain-shortened shutout (seven innings at Fenway Park) and is Sunday's scheduled starter. Colon, soon to be 40, is 3-0 already with a 2.42 ERA and he's issued one walk while striking out 17. How does he do it? Nine out of every 10 of his pitches are fastballs, and he's still hitting 90 mph on the radar gun, so give him credit for location, location and more location.

Bullpen follies: In one bullpen you've got the best closer in the business in Craig Kimbrel. In the other it's Jose Valverde, unemployed all winter, in Single-A ball when this week began and now closing again. It's quite the difference! The Atlanta Braves and Detroit Tigers are likely playoff teams no matter how their bullpens evolve (each bullpen will be fine) and face off in Detroit in the lone interleague series. The Braves have the pitching edge, as they avoid Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, and their trio of Paul Maholm, Kris Medlen and Mike Minor bring a composite 1.65 ERA with them. The Tigers will send right-hander Rick Porcello to the mound Saturday, coming off an outing in which he was charged with nine runs in the first inning at Anaheim. Still only 24 but with a career ERA of 4.67 in more than 700 innings, those expecting Porcello to suddenly emerge as a star might be waiting a really long time. Minor and the worthy Doug Fister are scheduled to meet on Sunday night on ESPN.

Worst of the worst: Meanwhile, the battles aren't solely between contending teams. The Chicago Cubs and Miami Marlins certainly aren't good teams, but that doesn't mean there isn't much to watch. For the dysfunctional Marlins, it's all about outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, off to miserable start. For those blaming the lack of offense around him I ask, who exactly protected Stanton in the lineup last year, Jose Reyes and Emilio Bonifacio? For the Cubs, it's worth tuning in if they have a ninth-inning lead. Pick the over on potential Carlos Marmol bases on balls. Tune in to this series and get a few laughs.

From Cy to Sigh: Every R.A. Dickey outing is worth a look, just to see how the knuckleball will be floating, and so far it seems last season's NL Cy Young award winner is even less sure than normal where it's going. Dickey's numbers are a bit inflated (4.66 ERA, 1.45 WHIP), likely in some part due to neck and back stiffness that he says has affected the knuckleball's velocity. Dickey has never started a game at Yankee Stadium, and it's not exactly a great offensive squad he'll face (Jayson Nix! Lyle Overbay! Brennan Boesch!), but if the Blue Jays are going to contend in the AL East, they'll need better pitching than they’ve received.

Enjoy your weekend!

Quick thoughts on Sunday's games (click here for thoughts on the Braves' hot start and the entire weekend wrap) ...

• Joey Votto finally homered, his first in 51 games going back to June 24 and first since his knee surgery last July. Even without the power, Votto has been reaching base -- a .542 OBP thanks to his MLB-leading 20 walks (Albert Pujols is second with 11) -- so is still an extremely valuable offensive player. Still, I'm sure the Reds like to see a little more pop; remember, this was a guy who third in total bases in the NL in his 2010 MVP season (when he hit 37 home runs) and fourth in 2011, and he still walked a lot those years. He was lining doubles all over the place last year before the injury. With his eye and willingness of pitchers to pitch around him, it means the guys following him in the lineup have to start producing. We mean you Jay Bruce: .255, no home runs, two walks, 18 strikeouts.
• It's been a great start for the A's at 9-4 but the one worrisome issue has been Jarrod Parker. The Tigers pounded him on Sunday to drop him to 0-2 with a 10.80 ERA after three starts. Parker hasn't just been unlucky; he's also been bad, with eight walks, 23 hits and just four strikeouts in 11.2 innings. Batters are 0-for-5 off his changeup, but he hasn't been able to get to enough changeup counts as batters are hitting .450 off his fastball. The velocity has been the same as last year, and Parker and manager Bob Melvin aren't concerned. "I made a couple of good pitches and they hit them, and I made a couple of bad pitches and they hit them," Parker told MLB.com. "I threw strikes. They were just up in the zone."
• Fourteen games were played on Sunday and we saw four shutouts and six other teams held to one run. The pitchers continue to dominate.

Where do rivalries come from? Are they invented, or do they spring from the game itself? Twenty years later, I remember a comment Baseball Prospectus founder Gary Huckabay made on the subject, that rivalries don’t come from the game’s history but from the games on the field.

That seems well worth keeping in mind when you see the white-hot Oakland Athletics sell out a game in April, because it was against the Detroit Tigers, against reigning best pitcher on the planet Justin Verlander no less, and the last time we had that same combination was just six short months ago, in Game 5 of the ALDS. And as Verlander did then, he did it again on Saturday: he killed off the A’s ambitions.

The A’s did everything you ought to do if you’re going to beat the Tigers in a Verlander start, even down big early, even without Yoenis Cespedes. They made him work for every out, pushing him up toward 120 pitches before the sixth inning, and even Jim Leyland wasn’t willing to push his ace for a seventh frame, no matter how exasperating his pen has been, not this early in a season.

Verlander has always been tough on the A’s. Saturday’s start lowered his career RA/9 against them to 2.61; only the Rangers have done less among any opponent he’s faced 10 or more times. They certainly couldn’t beat him in the 2006 ALCS, when he was a rookie helping to kill off the last gasp of the Moneyball A’s. And if the A's are going to have a shot in October, you can’t help but anticipate that they’ll have to beat him at some point to advance.

Fragile A’s ace aspirant Brett Anderson clearly wasn’t up to it on Saturday, although that might have been equal parts his latest physical failing -- a thumb injury suffered in his second start against the Astros on April 7 -- or facing a Tigers lineup loaded with right-handed power as well as a hot Prince Fielder. But after his seven runs and three homers allowed, his team was in a hole.

The Tigers’ bullpen was almost up to pulling the A's right back out of it. Just as they rallied to win in extras on Friday, the A's no doubt pushed Leyland to reach for a quick smoke in the tunnel by scoring two in the seventh and loading the bases in the eighth. If anything was going to help resurrect Jose Valverde sooner rather than later, it would be another game like this. Happily enough for the Kitties, Joaquin Benoit fended them off by getting Jed Lowrie on a called Strike 3, then notching another three K’s in the ninth. Benoit may not yet have his closer’s merit badge to some people’s way of thinking, but outings like this might kill off the Tigers’ simmering closer controversy faster than any deal. If they nip that problem in the bud with the talent at hand, the Tigers will be that much more transparently the team to beat in the AL, in any and every inning.

For an A’s team gunning to prove that 2012 was no accident, that sets up a rivalry based not on divisional alignment or frequent head-to-head matchups on the schedule. It’s aspirational, like the A’s themselves.

So I ask again, where do rivalries come from? If you remember the 2006 ALCS, that’s cool, but it’s also so yesterday. No, a rivalry springs from a lineup that already put a win on the board against the Tigers’ bullpen and created a chance for itself to do so again on Saturday, and not one of the men batting on Saturday was on that 2006 team. And it comes from the veteran relief crew putting away a game it had to if it's going to silence the drumbeat for a Motor City move to bring in an “established closer.”

A rivalry springs from a sellout crowd of East Bay residents pumped up about April baseball because they remember October baseball. And it comes from the shared memories of that impossible run up to October, shared by those in the stands and those on the field, Athletics and Tigers alike, because the Tigers came away from their hard-won ALDS speaking with deep respect for the Coliseum crowd.

It comes from all of these things, from you and from them. It’s the drama that doesn’t need framing, doesn’t need staging, doesn’t need anecdotes about the 1972 ALCS, because this is history writing itself, and everyone remembers the way it was because that’s right now.

Christina Kahrl covers baseball for ESPN.com. You can follow her on Twitter.

A year ago, the Cleveland Indians allowed the most runs in the American League, a pretty remarkable achievement considering the Minnesota Twins had a historically awful rotation. The Indians, however, combined bad pitchers and bad defense -- their -51 Defensive Runs Saved ranked 28th in the majors.

Like the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, the Indians decided to make their pitching better by improving their defense. First they traded impending free agent Shin-Soo Choo, who graded out as -12 DRS in right field, and landed Reds center fielder Drew Stubbs in the deal, pushing Michael Brantley to left. Then they signed free agent Nick Swisher to replace Choo; Swisher is a better right fielder than Choo. But when Michael Bourn remained unsigned into February, the Indians swooped in and signed the two-time Gold Glove center fielder. That pushed Swisher primarily to first base and gave the Indians an outfield of three guys who played center field last year.

The Indians' outfield collectively rated as -17 a year ago, and it's conceivable this group could rate at +30 runs -- a 47-run difference worth nearly five wins. Not to mention maybe some added confidence to the pitching staff.

The Red Sox, likewise, signed Shane Victorino to play right field and promoted rookie Jackie Bradley to play left. They join Jacoby Ellsbury to give them an outfield of three center fielders; Bradley defers to the veteran Ellsbury for now, but scouting reports suggest he's an elite defender.

The Angels, who rated as the second-best defensive outfield a year ago at +46 runs (behind Atlanta's +55), could be even better this year, with Peter Bourjos getting more time in center, Mike Trout playing left, and Josh Hamilton, who played a lot of center field for Texas, in right. Essentially, the Angels decided to replace Kendrys Morales' bat with Bourjos' glove, with Mark Trumbo playing more DH and less outfield.

If Bill James and then "Moneyball" popularized the importance of on-base percentage, then that sort of makes outfield defense the new OBP. Of course, just because emphasizing outfield defense appears to be a new trend doesn't really make it new. Just like Branch Rickey was talking about the importance of OBP over batting average in the 1950s.

For example, look at Whitey Herzog's Royals of the late '70s and then his Cardinals in the 1980s. Playing on turf in both places, he always emphasized speed in the outfield. His 1985 Cardinals, for example, had an outfield of Vince Coleman, Willie McGee and Andy Van Slyke, three guys who could play center field (although Coleman had a poor arm). Van Slyke later paired with Barry Bonds in Pittsburgh to give the Pirates two Gold Glove outfielders as they won three NL East titles in a row. The A's of the early '80s had the great trio of Rickey Henderson, Dwayne Murphy and Tony Armas. The 2001 Mariners won 116 games in part by employing three great defenders in Mike Cameron, Ichiro Suzuki and part-timer Stan Javier.

But I would suggest that it seems we are deep in outstanding defensive outfields right now. Here's how I would rank the top five -- remember, we're talking only about defense here.

1. Angels: LF Mike Trout, CF Peter Bourjos, RF Josh Hamilton
Trout and Bourjos are arguably the two best outfielders in the American League, and Hamilton is at least adequate with a strong arm.

2. Athletics: LF Yoenis Cespedes, CF Coco Crisp, RF Josh Reddick
The A's were fifth in DRS last year at +17, but that includes Cespedes' time in center, where he rated poorly. He should be solid in left (he made a nice play on Hamilton the other night, running down a deep drive in left-center and doubling Albert Pujols off first) with a strong arm, Reddick is outstanding in right (+19 last year) and Crisp average in center. And backing up is Chris Young, who always had excellent defensive metrics with Arizona.

3. Indians: LF Michael Brantley, CF Michael Bourn, RF Drew Stubbs
Bourn's +24 DRS last year tied him with Alex Gordon for the best total of any outfielder in the majors. He can run everything down in center, and now you flank him with two decent center fielders who should rate above-average in the corners. The only question here: Will Stubbs hit enough to remain in the lineup?

4. Brewers: LF Ryan Braun, CF Carlos Gomez, RF Norichika Aoki
The Brewers ranked third at +24 DRS a year ago and should be very good once again. All three are above-average defenders.

5. Red Sox: LF Jackie Bradley Jr., CF Jacoby Ellsbury, RF Shane Victorino
Victorino's metrics have dropped a bit in the past couple seasons as a center fielder, but he can still run and has a chance to be outstanding in right. Bradley won't get to show off his range at Fenway Park, but that doesn't mean he won't add defensive value. Ellsbury was +7 DRS back in 2011.

Worth considering: Nationals (Bryce Harper, Denard Span, Jayson Werth). Span is very good and Harper actually rated very good in center last year, despite some bad routes at times. Werth appears to have lost a step from his Phillies days.

Worth considering but overrated: Braves (Justin Upton, B.J. Upton, Jason Heyward). It will be interesting to see what happens here. Since Baseball Info Solutions began their Defensive Runs Saved metric in 2003, the +55 the Braves were evaluated at last year was the third-highest by any outfield (behind two other Braves teams in 2005 and 2007 that featured Andruw Jones). But Bourn and Martin Prado are gone, replaced by the Upton brothers. Some consider B.J. an elite center fielder, but I've never thought that and his metrics aren't great (-30 runs over the past three years). Heyward is terrific in right (+20 last year and a deserving Gold Glove winner) while Justin has been solid (+14 total over the past three years) if prone to throwing errors.

Sleeper: Tigers (Andy Dirks, Austin Jackson, Torii Hunter). Jackson is terrific in center, and Hunter continues to age gracefully.

The defensive metrics don't like them: Orioles (Nate McLouth, Adam Jones, Nick Markakis). Jones won the AL Gold Glove for center field, but DRS considers him below average. Just a few games into the season, the Orioles are at -5 runs ... although, to be fair, so are the Angels (Trout is -2 and Hamilton -4). Maybe Trout is fat.

Struggling starting pitchers will certainly be on display this weekend as teams -- both real and fantasy -- wonder if their aces will deliver. Of course, it's not even Tax Day yet, so in general it's wise to be patient. By the way, don't forget to pay your taxes on time!

Cy of relief? The defending Cy Young Award winners each come off brutal outings and both feature ERAs around 9. But who's really worried about Tampa Bay Rays lefty David Price and Toronto Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey hurling Saturday? Each permitted eight runs their last time out, but they won a combined 40 games last year. Price has performed well at Fenway Park, going 4-1 with a 2.22 ERA over seven starts. Don't worry about him. With Dickey, it's tough to control the knuckleball at times. His career numbers at Kansas City (5.28 ERA) are irrelevant because he was ineffective while with the Texas Rangers, but don't be surprised when he needs more time to find his 2012 form.

In a Halladaze: Of far greater concern is a two-time Cy Young winner in Philly. Do not assume work-in-progress former ace Roy Halladay will suddenly dominate the terrible Miami Marlins on Sunday. Even struggling offenses have their day. The Houston Astros scored 24 runs Tuesday and Wednesday. Halladay can't locate his pitches, his cutter has been ineffective and while the Phillies claim all is well physically, you should know better than to listen to what a team says. If John Buck and Evan Gattis are taking Halladay deep, what do you think Giancarlo Stanton will do? Fantasy owners should bench Halladay, while the Phillies have no choice but to send the $20 million man out there. This might again be painful to watch. The game to check out in this weekend series is Saturday, when exciting rook Jose Fernandez takes on Cole Hamels.

The real NL East battle: Early division bragging rights are on the line as the Braves visit the Nationals. Fifth starters Julio Teheran and Ross Detwiler open the series Friday, but then the Braves have to face Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez. Maybe Tim Hudson and Paul Maholm can match up with them this weekend, but Washington's top starting pitching is a differentiator in this top-notch race. Meanwhile, MVP candidates Justin Upton and Bryce Harper are always worth watching.

O for offense: Runs were at a premium when the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees met in the playoffs last season. Baltimore hit .187 in the series, the Yankees .211. Big money ultimately trumped overachieving bullpen, and neither team has distinguished itself in the early going as a team to beat. Sunday night’s ESPN game features underrated lefties Wei-Yin Chen and Andy Pettitte. Chen was Baltimore's top starter a year ago, and figures to deliver a similar performance, while the 40-year-old Pettitte has won both of his starts, giving up only one run in each. Who has the better season? I'll go with Pettitte for 15 wins, and take the minority opinion he avoids the disabled list as well.

A for effort: The Detroit Tigers outlasted the Oakland Athletics in the other ALDS last October, with Justin Verlander allowing one run in his two victories. Oakland's nominal ace, the oft-injured Brett Anderson, didn't allow any runs in his Game 4 win, either. On Saturday afternoon these fellows are scheduled to meet, assuming Anderson's left (pitching) thumb contusion allows him to work. Anderson's upside isn't to the level of Verlander, but his presence in Oakland's rotation is as critical as teammate Jarrod Parker's, who doesn't look like the same guy he was in 2012. As always with Anderson, it's not about performance, but health.

Enjoy your weekend!

It's easy to forget that a year ago there were the big three super prospects: Bryce Harper, Mike Trout and Matt Moore, and not necessarily in that order. Baseball America named Moore its No. 2 prospect and wrote, "He makes it look so easy, and he's so good he'll make David Price a No. 2 starter." While Harper and Trout exploded after getting called up in late April, Moore was quickly forgotten, in part because Harper and Trout exploded, in part because he plays for Tampa Bay, but mostly because it wasn't so easy for Moore in his rookie campaign.

Moore went 11-11 with a 3.81 ERA and struck out 175 batters in 177.1 innings, normally numbers about which one would be ecstatic from a rookie left-hander, but viewed with some disappointment. But it's not fair to view Moore through the lens of what happened to Harper and Trout, or even the 2.95 ERA that Rays teammate Jeremy Hellickson had posted as a rookie in 2011.

Expectations for Moore shot up after the dominant playoff start against the Rangers in 2011, when he pitched seven scoreless innings in just his second major league start. After an inconsistent first half in 2012, Moore was very good in the second half (3.01 ERA, five home runs allowed, opponents' batting line of .220/.303/.336). It was that improvement that was one reason many believed -- myself included -- that Moore would step in nicely behind Price as the team's No. 2 with the trade of James Shields to Kansas City.

Anyway, fast-forward to 2013. Most of the attention in the American League East has been paid to the revamped Blue Jays, the injury-riddled Yankees, and the revamped Red Sox (remember them?). Jackie Bradley Jr. drew a walk off CC Sabathia in the season opener and poems were written about his future greatness. Matt Moore? Yesterday's news.

After allowing no runs in his first start, Moore started again Wednesday on a 39-degree day in Texas, following a rain delay. He walked a career-worst six but escaped unscathed. In some regards, he was a little lucky -- last season, a starter walked at least six batters 65 times but only twice allowed no runs. His biggest out was getting Elvis Andrus to ground into an inning-ending double play with two on in the fifth. (Ben Zobrist would make the game's other key defensive play, throwing out Adrian Beltre at home in the eight to help preserve the 2-0 lead.)

"Where the big pitches that really needed to be made, I was locked into those moments," Moore said. "From that, we can be happy with what the results were."

The cold weather makes it difficult to evaluate Moore's performance. His fastball velocity is down a couple miles per hour from last year in his first two starts, but that's not yet a concern in early April. What is a concern is the location of those fastballs. Look where he has been throwing it against right-handed batters so far:



Those are tough places to make a consistent living, especially when you're throwing 91-92 instead of 95-96. If he gets batters to chase that high fastball, it can work. But as we saw Wednesday, high fastball can also lead to walks. Again, it's early, and I think Moore will be fine -- heck, he hasn't allowed a run -- but the fastball command is something to pay attention to before we declare him the next David Price.

My bigger point: Before we move on to hoping for the next great thing, let's pay attention to the good ones already here.

Other quick thoughts from Wednesday:

• Watched more A's-Angels. Random thoughts: (1) Joe Blanton might not last the year in the rotation; wasn't that good in the National League the past few years; (2) Albert Pujols looks really good (except when he has to run); (3) John Jaso looks really good in that No. 2 hole in the lineup; (4) Bob Melvin is a better manager than Eric Wedge (see point No. 3); (5) With Scott Sizemore out for the year, Eric Sogard is going to play a lot of second base. He has a chance to surprise. Not much power, but takes good at-bats, doesn't strike out much, will take a few walks.
• How about Barry Zito for eight-game NL MVP? Hasn't allowed a run in two starts and is hitting .750!
• Big start for the Royals' Wade Davis, who fought through a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the second by striking out Aaron Hicks and Joe Mauer and getting Josh Willingham to pop out. He was taking something off his fastball at times, according to the Royals announcers; they weren't calling it a changeup, but more of a "BP fastball." He settled down and went five scoreless. Davis had started for Tampa with mediocre results but had a great year in relief in 2012. If his transition back to the rotation works, KC's top three of Shields, Jeremy Guthrie and Davis may be better than I originally thought.
• Here's a long home run from Atlanta's Juan Francisco. Nobody said he didn't have power when he connects.
• Bad news for the Mariners. Not only did the Astros kill them two games in a row, but Michael Saunders crashed into the wall and is likely headed to the disabled list with a shoulder strain. Looks like Saunders just misread where the wall was; one out certainly isn't worth crashing into a wall for.
• Bryce Harper still hasn't walked. He went 2-for-4 and hit his fourth home run to raise his average to .394. But he saw only eight pitches. I'll look at this more closely Thursday, but since he saw so many breaking balls last year, I wonder if he's being more aggressive on fastballs early in the count. It's working for now, but at some point pitchers will start to use that aggressiveness against him.

 
The first rule of April: It's too early to panic.

The second rule April: It's never too early to panic.

So the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim returned to the sun and the strip malls and the land where orange groves once filled the horizon for their home opener … and by the top of the second inning were getting booed.

C.J. Wilson had thrown 43 pitches in the first inning while allowing three runs. The Angels then loaded the bases with no outs against Jarrod Parker but failed to score. When Coco Crisp slammed a home run in the second inning to make it 4-0, the boos came. They were mild, Southern California laid-back boos, but there they were. Considering the news earlier in the day that Jered Weaver will miss at least four weeks with a broken bone in his non-pitching elbow, it was understandable that Angels fans were starting to wonder if they were heading for a repeat of last year's disastrous 8-15 start after the team's 2-4 road trip to begin this season.

It ended up being a crazy game. The Angels got the leadoff man on in each of the first five innings but scored only two runs in the third -- an inning that could have been bigger in not for an Albert Pujols baserunning gaffe. With no outs, Yoenis Cespedes ran down Josh Hamilton's fly in deep left-center, but Pujols misread the play and had rounded second base; hobbled by plantar fasciitis, Pujols was doubled off first base.

The A's later attempted to give the game away when Chris Young dropped a fly ball and Jed Lowrie booted a grounder, helping the Angels take a 5-4 lead, but John Jaso hit a three-run homer pinch-hit homer off Kevin Jepsen in the seventh and Brandon Moss followed with a two-run shot as the A's won 9-5 for their sixth consecutive victory, dropping the Angels to 2-5.

But the major takeaway from this game has to be Hamilton: What's going on with the Angels' $125 million free-agent signing? The Rangers intentionally walked Pujols three times Saturday to get to Hamilton. Perhaps Texas manager Ron Washington was having flashbacks to the 2011 World Series, or maybe the Rangers were playing mind games, or maybe Washington really believes in the intentional walk, or maybe they just thought Hamilton was an easier out.

Guys making $25 million aren't supposed to be easy outs, but right now Josh Hamilton is a pretty easy out. (Caveat to analysis below: It's just seven games; if this happened in the middle of June we wouldn't necessarily even notice.)

Entering Tuesday's game, here were three facts about Hamilton:

1. He had the fourth-highest percentage of swings on pitches outside the strike zone, at 48 percent (behind Alexei Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval and Alfonso Soriano). Nothing new there: Hamilton had the highest such percentage last season of any qualified hitter.

2. His contact percentage when he did swing was tied for 11th-worst. Hard to make contact when you're swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. Again, nothing new here: He was the worst in this category among regulars in 2012.

3. He was tied for 26th in percentage of pitches seen within the strike zone (41.7 percent). That will probably change. Last year, Hamilton saw the fewest percentage of pitches in the strike zone, at 34 percent.

Now, he managed to hit 43 home runs last year anyway, certainly a testament to his talent. But we also know he tailed off in the second half -- .259 with 16 home runs in 69 games after hitting .308 with 27 home runs in 77 games in the first half -- as pitchers realized they didn't have to feed him as many strikes.

On Tuesday, here were Hamilton's five plate appearances:

First inning -- Struck out on three Parker changeups with the bases loaded.

Third inning -- Batting with two on, Hamilton did take two balls in the dirt to work the count full against Parker before lining a 93-mph fastball to deep left-center that Cespedes hauled in.

Fourth inning -- Batting again with the bases loaded, this time against Chris Resop, Hamilton got the count full but tapped weakly back to Resop, who got the force at home. Resop threw seven pitches -- five changeups, a curve and one fastball.

Sixth inning -- Against lefty Jerry Blevins with runners at the corners, he lofted an 0-2 slider to center for a sac fly. All three pitches from Blevins were sliders; the first two were fouled off.

Eighth inning -- Facing lefty Sean Doolittle, fouled off five fastballs before finally grounding out to first on a 2-2 curve.

There were some positive signs on the day: After striking out 10 times in his first 29 plate appearances entering the game, Hamilton whiffed just once. He fouled off pitches. But you can see the game plan. Other than against Doolittle, the A's fed him a steady diet of off-speed stuff, hoping to use Hamilton's aggressive approach against him. That's what pitchers did last year and what most teams will do moving forward, at least until Hamilton shows he won't stop swinging at those pitches when they're out of the strike zone. It's only a week, but I don't see any signs yet that Hamilton is any different than the hitter we saw the second half last year.

Now, he can still be a good hitter. Can he be a great hitter? I don't think so. Hamilton just gets himself out too often.

Look, it's too early to panic about Hamilton's production. But it's not too early to wonder what the long-term ramifications about his approach will mean.