OAKLAND ? Joe Blanton was a testament to the power of positive thinking.
Blanton, who had lugged a four-game losing streak to the mound, said he made a conscious effort to relax and visualize before each pitch on Tuesday night.
The results were impressive. He gave up one run in seven innings in a 5-2 victory over the Phillies at the Coliseum, supported by Emil Brown?s three-run homer and a Jack Cust two-run shot.
?I really just wanted to put a lot of focus into every pitch,? he said. ?I wanted to take a deep breath and visualize everything before I did it.?
Blanton, who had a 7.94 earned-run average over his previous four starts, said he didn?t change anything significant in his routine or his delivery since giving up eight runs in three innings last week at Arizona.
He said it was simply a matter of slowing down and concentrating on executing each pitch, one at a time.
?I thought he threw the ball real well,? manager Bob Geren said. ?He used all of his pitches and kept the ball down. It was a great performance.?
Blanton was the A?s opening-day starter, but his 3-10 record coming into the game belied that status. For the first two months of the season, he pitched well, but with bad luck. Since his last victory on May 24, he had struggled.
?I was trying to stay on a level (plane, emotionally) as much as possible, but I wasn?t doing a very good job of it,? he said. ?I had a couple of good games sandwiched around a couple of bad ones. I didn?t want to change anything, just fine-tune a little bit.?
The challenge he faced this time around was presented by the slugging Phillies, who came into the game second in the majors with 104 homers, and indirectly by ageless veteran Jamie Moyer.
After six innings, the Phillies led on Pat Burrell?s fourth-inning homer, 1-0. The A?s had done nothing against Moyer, striking out nine times following Kurt Suzuki?s first-inning single.
Moyer, 45, was his normal crafty self, but the A?s felt he was also getting some help from plate ump Jeff Nelson. Hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo was ejected for arguing with Nelson in the fifth inning.
When Brown was asked specifically about what Moyer was doing well, he said: ?I?m going to pass on that question. It wasn?t just Moyer out there.?
Brown was the beneficiary when Moyer finally did make a mistake.
Ryan Sweeney led off the seventh with an opposite-field single, only the A?s second hit of the night. An out later, Bobby Crosby reached on an infield single. Then Moyer left a ball up to Brown, who belted it off the top of the left-field fence and over, for a three-run homer.
The homer was huge in the context of this game, but also for Brown himself. He had started just three of the previous 15 games, including one streak of eight consecutive strikeouts.
?I felt all along there was one person that believes in me, no matter what, and that?s me,? Brown said. ?I believe in myself, no matter what they do to me.?
Brown?s homer, his first since May 11, put the A?s up 3-1. After the Phillies scored once against Alan Embree in the top of the eighth, Cust gave the A?s some insurance with a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning.
Huston Street, who had a loss and a blown save in his previous two outings, pitched a perfect ninth to record the save.
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