by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–With the exception of certain pitchers in Japan nobody is perfect, occasionally pitchers will run into a stinker such as A’s starting pitcher Jesse Chavez on Tuesday night at the Coliseum when he surrendered three runs in the top of the first inning against the Seattle Mariners. His offense didn’t help him a whole lot.

Chavez really didn’t get a shot to stay in the game to see if he could hold the M’s who had a one run lead on Oakland going to the sixth. Chavez got lifted in the middle of the sixth inning after getting charged with four runs all earned. MLB.com came out with the pitcher power rankings and they had the Giants at number one and the A’s number two for best pitching in the majors, ironically for Tuesday night the both teams lost.

A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has time to lift his .257 average, he was largely underschooled when he arrived in the Oakland. He’s been learning a lot of his craft at the Major Leauge level and he’s a major challenge and can be a force and as time goes by he will learn what pitchers are doing to try and get him out.

Cespedes banged out his fifth home run and 19th RBI against the M’s on Tuesday night.

Giants update: One thing about instant replay I’ve talked to several team coordinators and they’ve already began to realize you don’t challenge your plays that are close but you challenge your plays that are obvious. In the case of Giants catcher Buster Posey’s tag on Pirates runner Starling Marte there was nothing to lose on Tuesday night’s game as the Bucs challenged the play at the plate.

The other thing the players have to figure you have the umpires making these calls back in New York off TV, and the interesting thing is at the other three bases they determined whether or not somebody is on the base or not with his hand or his foot or whether or not the base deflects. You can’t do that with home plate.

Whether or not Posey regrets it regarding the replay rule, it’s a rule that people have to adjust to, in fact truthfully it’s not a change. The only thing that’s a change is adding language to the rule that a catcher has to leave a lane around home plate for the runner. The bigger change is to the runner and the catcher himself, the runner is not allowed to contact or push through to get home.

Michael Duca does Giants and A’s commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com