By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–It’s buy or sell time for the Oakland A’s, an annual check of the temperature for an organization of constantly moving parts. So that brings us to Saturday’s 5-4 win over the Blue Jays, engineered by a guy who just got here, another who’s probably not going anywhere, and a third whose arrival was certainly unexpected, given that he figured to stay where he was at.

Khris Davis, the guy who was traded to Oakland after putting up decent numbers that would suggest he would remain with the Brewers, homered twice in the win. Ryon Healy, who made his major league debut on Friday night, hit a three-run homer off R.A. Dickey for his first big league hit. And Sonny Gray ended a streak of 12 consecutive appearances without a win by hanging around long enough to benefit from all three long balls hit by Davis and Healy.

“I don’t think it’s any secret things haven’t been as you would hope for the majority of the year” Gray said. “And then today was a little bit more of physical and mental together after the second inning. Like I said, ‘Mentally, just stop fighting yourself. Don’t try to be too perfect.’”

Gray hadn’t picked up a win since April 22 before Saturday, the longest drought of any starter in baseball. Along with the hold-your-breath back issues that cost Gray two weeks last month, it hasn’t been the Oakland ace’s best season, just one year after he finished third in the AL Cy Young race. Manager Bob Melvin has termed Gray’s struggles as just an off year. Consequently, it’s less likely that Gray’s traded before the August 1 deadline. Gray’s trade value has lessened to a degree, not the ideal circumstances for a Billy Beane trade executed for the purpose of bringing back a bushel of prospects.

The biggest reason—and there are several—the A’s are where they are lies with their tepid, inconsistent offense, especially at the Coliseum. Coming into Saturday’s tilt with Toronto, the A’s had lost 10 of their last 14 at home, and are hitting just .244 as a team in their own building, the third worst showing by an AL team at home. But that changed a bit with the three home runs, especially the bomb hit by Davis in the sixth that put the A’s up 5-3.

Davis’ blast to right center traveled 431 feet, power that Melvin termed a gift that only a handful of major leaguers possess. He also homered on Friday, and he leads the A’s with 22 on the season. While Coco Crisp and Danny Valencia will see their playing time reduced to make room for younger players to audition at the big league level, and Josh Reddick is likely to be traded, Davis is on track to stay, play and but up the biggest numbers of his four major-league seasons, hopefully somewhere north of 35 homers and 95 RBI.

After hitting 27 home runs in 121 games for the Brewers, Davis was thought to be establishing himself in Milwaukee. But the Brewers wanted to make room for a pair of younger outfielders, Domingo Santana and Rymer Liriano, and didn’t like the look of their outfield defense with Ryan Braun and the weak-armed Davis in the corners. So the 28-year old was shipped to Oakland in February after almost all the off-season deals had been consummated.

Davis hasn’t been a complete knockout, walking just 11 times while striking out 87, but he’s outdone Braun (13 home runs), Santana (4), Liriano (1) in the power department by quite a bit.

After allowing three home runs on Saturday, Dickey’s allowed 22 on the season, and he admitted the chemistry of his trademark knuckler was off on Saturday. The veteran pitcher has said in the past that the quality of the pitch varies with temperature, wind and velocity, and it was obvious that those factors weren’t meshing in the second inning when Healy and Davis both went deep.

“If you got the ball up in the air today, it was going to go,” Dickey said. “Unfortunately, I left one up, but that’s the first slow knuckleball I’ve thrown in four years that has gotten hit out, so I thought it was a safe pitch.”

Healy’s moon shot ended up just inside the left field foul pole, and elicited various reactions. His mom, Laurie, among a group of 10 family members and friends in the stands, shed a tear. The rookie was greeted enthusiastically at home plate by Stephen Vogt and Marcus Semien who scored ahead of him. And the A’s dugout ignored Healy just long enough to make it a lovable act.

Healy’s home run was the first of the 22 Dickey has allowed with as many as two baserunners aboard. It put the A’s up 4-2, and set the Steve Vucinich Ball Retrieval Machine in motion. The A’s equipment manager was successful in finding the rookie’s initial hit and home run ball, exchanging it for another ball and a signed bat.

“Much appreciation for him,” Healy said of fan David Thompson, who caught the ball and took the deal.

The A’s look for the sweep on Sunday with Rich Hill getting the start. He’ll face Toronto’s J.A. Happ, who has an exemplary 12-3 record, which includes an impressive shutout of the Giants at AT&T Park in May.