by Michael Duca

Giants update: The San Francisco Giants got a home run from Brandon Belt who hasn’t hit one all year for a game winner on Saturday night in San Diego and then they got a home run from Gregor Blanco who hasn’t hit one this season, and then another home run from Michael Morse who hasn’t hit one in five weeks for his 14th of the season. Anyone of those would be a nice shot in the arm for the Giants but the three of them together would give a big dose of hope to that locker room.

Most people who haven’t been in a professional sports environment they think the players love to be at home and they have home cooking and they could be with their family and spend time with their kids and what could be worse than that. It’s terrible that their on the road, but that’s not the way it is. You have to remember that professional athletes are basically frat boys for rest and development.

So when the players get out on the road they have the opportunity to bond with each other and they don’t go their own separate ways. After the game they can stick together and when you have a team like the Giants struggling like they have, the road is a good place for them to relax. If they start having fun they’ll start winning and having fun and having fun winning reoccurs.

Oakland A’s update: I don’t know if the A’s are playing the best baseball or are the best team in baseball right now, they are the most complete club in baseball. Whether or not that translates to post season you just can’t be sure. Your going to have face Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer the Tigers pitchers eventually.

They’ll face Detroit in a five game series in post season and when that happens all bets will be off the table. However the move the A’s made this week in obtaining from the Cubs Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel. The deal shocked everyone in baseball and how long will these guys end up staying in Oakland and if Samardzija had to leave Chicago one place that was very high on his list was Oakland.

We’ll have to find out because Samardzija said he loved pitching at AT&T in San Francisco which he might have an opportunity too. Were going to find out how much Samardzija can go with this series against the Giants. I will be following Samardzija and the A’s from about 80 feet away during the Giants series because I’m working behind the screen and how well that translates for the A’s to get to post season that’s just a matter of time and the Giants are a decent team.

The A’s will open a two game series in Oakland with the Giants on Monday and then they go to San Francisco to play the Giants on Wednesday. One of the local journalists predicted that the Giants would sweep the A’s in all five games, I don’t think so. There is one thing that you could be sure of when these two teams get together and thats there are so many factors coming into this series with their line ups and how guys are hitting and pitching and let’s not forget these are two first place teams.

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

Right now Belt is on a pac