by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–The Oakland A’s 5-3 victory over the L.A. Angels on Friday night was a great game and it got a little too exciting there, there was one out and A’s pitcher Sonny Gray had left a man on base and it’s the ninth inning and Sean Doolittle came in to relieve Gray. It took 30 pitches for Doolittle to get two outs and win the ball game. Doolittle might be limited on when he can relieve next it’s questionable if he’s going to have to come out in all three game of this series against the Angels if needed.

Craig Gentry has returned as of Friday and he’s rehabbed well over the last few weeks and went one for three and that’s pretty impressive coming off a broken hand injury. That was a good opportunity for Gentry and that gives you an opportunity for you to get in the game and be yourself. He’s recovering the hand and unless he starts walking on the hand he should heal just fine and once Gentry gets on base he’s a disturbing subject for the opposing pitcher to keep an eye on.

San Francisco Giants update: Joe Panik has had himself a week he’s had multi hit games the last several days. He’s gone 15-27 during that time period and he’s close to .600 hitting. He’s another in a line of Giants infielders whose picked up former Giant Rich Aurillia’s mantle pretty well. He’s done pretty well defensively and now he’s been quite a distributor on offense.

They say the best trades are the ones that you don’t make sometimes and there’s no doubt about it in this case the Giants probably got the best second baseman available in the Major Leagues. They got him before the trade deadline and they got him out of their own organization.

The Giants were looking at getting Cuban player 27 year old Rusney Castillo but that winning bid went to the Boston Red Sox who got him for $72.5 million for seven years. The Giants how serious they were on the deal is in question but the were alledgedly in on the deal supposedly he was going to play centerfield and another thing is with Cuban players your not really sure how old they really are.

Castillo is a solid centerfielder and a lead off hitter and the Giants already have that in Jose Pagan. Castillo could have ended up being a development player and would have been playing out of positon and the next position for him to play is shortstop. The Giants are tied up at the position too, what they might have done next is make someone like him a corner outfielder.

I’m not sure if I believe this notion that Castillo is too expensive for the Giants $72.5 million for seven years for the Giants to compete for a potential impact player. Then there is the contract of Pablo Sandoval whose seeking Hunter Pence type money so will the Giants be able to free up some money and bring back the Panda for next season?

When they sell out every single night when the streak is close to 400 games you have to consider these things when big name players come out on the market. It’s a little bit surprising that people would say the reason why they didn’t go after Castillo was he’s too expensive. It’s hard for me the imagine the Giants management group not willing.

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