by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–Giants starter Madison Baumgarner who nearly tossed himself a perfect game on Tuesday night had all his stuff working for him and if you look at the first inning of that game you would never in a million years have predicted that he was going to be working on a no hitter in the seventh or eighth innings. They teed off on him in the first inning Gregor Blanco had to pull a ball back in that was going to go over the fence and there was another ball that was absolutely scalded in that inning.

That first inning the Colorado Rockies were roping the ball and it didn’t even look like he was going to last three innings then all of a sudden the Rockies remembered who they were and Baumgarner remembered who he was and he 15 0-2 counts and three three ball counts. Everybody says the best pitch in baseball is strike one but I beg to differ with them I say it’s strike two.

Strike two always makes the hitter defensive and he had them in a defensive posture most of the night. That’s not a comfortable way to hit against a guy who drops down, who comes side arm, who hides the ball well, doesn’t show you his release point, those were rough at bats. Baumgarner’s performance was not too surprising for example my son who is a full grown adult and a Seattle Mariners fan texted me after Tim Lincecum’s last no hitter and he said “Mad Bum’s turn next” he was almost pretty passioned there.

For manager Bruce Bochy and thoughts of getting in a good position in the National League West things are different now than a few years ago but my recollection is right, about this point in August of 2010 the Giants were five games back of the San Diego Padres and then there was the miracle comeback when the team put together a over ten game win streak to catch the Padres in September. Not by way of predicting that’s going to happen again there’s still a lot of baseball left ask the 2010 Red Sox or the 2010 Braves how rapidly you can collapse in the month of September.

Giant starter Yumeiro Petit: He’s a strike thrower that’s what I like about his game as a pitcher he’ll go out and challenge guys in a strike zone he’ll say “here it comes hit it” it’s tough to have a better performance than he did for the resmumption for the suspended game in Chicago. Petit struck out six batters, he struck out the first five and another ball was hit right back to him. Someone said it was like watching Eddie Feigner in his King and the Court days.

Oakland A’s update: The race in the American Leauge West is turning into a war of attrition, don’t discount the Seattle Mariners because they are playing the best baseball in the American Leauge right now along with the Kansas City Royals and the M’s are not that much further out right now than the Giants so to consider the Giants to be in the race you have to consider the Mariners to reach for the division title.

On the other hand the A’s have suffered some injuries that have given them some grief and the Angels have lost Garrett Richards who’s their best pitcher. The first guy the Angels brought up to fill that spot was Wade LaBlance but that assignment didn’t work out too well. That puts a real hitch in your giddy up when you lose your lead horse.

The four games with the Angels in Anaheim which started on Thursday night are most likely going to be split. A’s manager Bob Melvin is going to rely on one of his pitchers for the missing Sean Doolittle out with an injury for the next two weeks and that’s Eric O’Flaherty. O’Flaherty is probably going to get the bulk if not all the save opportunities.

O’Flaherty regularly throws 96-97 MPH and is just one of those kind of insurance policies of the future that General Manager Billy Beane likes to go out and purchase. He picked up O’Flaherty and signed him to a contract when he was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and got him at a bargain rate because he was going to be able to play at half a season.

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