by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–San Francisco Giants outfielder Angel Pagan hit the game winning home run on Thursday night in Arizona in a five run eighth inning and they played a little more baseball after that. The A’s had a walk off home run on Thursday night.

Pagan sparks the Giants line up and he has speed that no one on that roster has. He almost and I’m not saying he has but almost has former Oakland A’s lead off hitter Rickey Henderson’s like characteristics and he’s also approaching former late Giant Bobby Bonds like ability to drive the ball out of the ball park.

He’s an RBI guy on the top of the line up which allows you to treat the bottom of your line up differently and like part of the pack, not something to just get through on the way to the top of the line up. Pagan is also a popular figure in the Giants clubhouse amongst his teammates, media and fans.

Pagan is a well spoken guy and he’s a passionate guy and that passion about baseball comes through when he speaks to the press. In general fans are very passionate and they find it easier to relate to players who get excited about the game.

Former Giants announcer Lon Simmons who is enjoying retirement in Maui playing rounds of golf and not as much as he would like to which makes all the rest of the guys on the green captive that Lon isn’t playing very much. Giant broadcasters Jon Miller, Mike Krukow, and Duane Kuiper all grew up with Lon as I grew up listening to him and Kruk and Kuip grew up having their careers detailed by him.

So if the fans don’t get excited by Lon making an appearance shame on them, they don’t have much sense for their childhood and I know that they dearly, dearly love Lon and are thrilled to see him when he’s able to get to the Bay Area from Hawaii. He doesn’t come as much as we’d like any more and as most people who reach the ripe old age of 90 Lon has to take some pretty serious precautions with himself.

After A’s releiver Jim Johnson lost two saves in the first two A’s games at home against Cleveland it’s easy to say Johnson is not too happy about it. Watching his pitching from gronud level there doesn’t appear to be a lot of velocity and a lot of tremendous life on the pitches.

For Johnson coming out of the bull pen that’s not a good combination and you hope that this is a temporary thing that relievers go through their dead arm phase a little bit later because the possibility certainly exists to have to be considered that the Orioles got his best years because they worked him hard and put him away after that. Johnson had 100 saves in the last two years and a lot of high stress innings on that arm in Baltimore.

Michael Duca does commentary on the A’s and Giants each week for Sportstalk radio