by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Right now the A’s are trying to win one of the two wild cards competing with the Royals but Seattle and Kansas City are not too far behind. There’s a total of six games left in the season and with just two wild cards left. The rotation for this series reads like a playoff series for Los Angeles CJ Wilson and for Oakland Jeff Samardzija, for Tuesday the Angels start Wade LeBlanc (0-1 ERA 5.24) and for the A’s Sonny Gray (13-9 ERA 3.28) and on Wednesday for LA Hector Santiago (5-9 ERA 3.13) for Oakland Jon Lester (16-10 ERA 2.41).

This is an unpredictable series and it’s baseball anything can happen and the Angles swept the A’s not too long ago. The A’s got swept recently by Texas so anything can happen but this first game is the best chance for the Angels. On Tuesday Gray is the favorite although Gray in the second half of the season and has not been winning and his ERA has been raised but the Angels LeBlanc is a guy from the bullpen.

The Angels have two pitchers out hurt Matt Shoemaker a right handed pitcher is out and of course they lost Garrett Richards so their having problems with injuries in the rotation but the A’s on Tuesday will have the upperhand. Jon Lester is going for Oakland on Wednesday night and he’s the best pitcher the A’s have (16-10 ERA 2.41) he wasn’t with Oakland in the first half of the season and it was a controversal trade sending the A’s Yoenis Cespedes to Boston for Lester.

I would have to say the A’s would be favored as Lester should win the game on Wednesday just on Lester’s pitching. Angels starter Hector Santiago who is up and down he was actually suppose to be the third starter for the Angels and didn’t amount to much. He went to the bull pen because the Angels needed him to shore up his pitching. This is a critical series for the A’s but it should be one for the ages playing against the Angels in a crunch time situation like this.

San Francisco Giants update: The Giants who started out Monday tied for first place in the National League wild card.Giant pitcher Jake Peavy matched up against the LA Dodgers Dan Haren. The rest of the series rotation for the Giants on Tuesday Madison Baumgarner (18-9) vs. the Dodgers Zack Grenike (15-8)and on Thursday the Giants started Tim Hudson (9-12) vs. the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw (20-3).

For the Giants going into this series it’s going to be a lot of work to get this one and they have alot riding on this one. Peavy was a good acquisition it was a very good move for Giants General Manager Brian Sabean. The three games at Dodgers Stadium are sold out. The Giants are in rough waters they’re going to have to win, their going to have to win two out of three they just got swept by the San Diego Padres so it’s going to be very tough for them these last few days.

In the National League West if you don’t beat the Padres or the Rockies then your going to have to beat a team like the Dodgers who are very tough. Look at Kershaw he’s going to be the Cy Young winner he’s already going to be the MVP also. He going to win his fourth ERA in a row. It’s a tough postion for the Giants it looks like their running out of gas we’ll have to see how they fair in this series in Los Angeles.

The Giants will really depend on Giants slugger Buster Posey hitting .309 with 21 homers, and 86 RBIs, Pablo Sandoval is very inconsistent, Joe Panik has done a good job at second base but still without Angel Pagan they don’t have that dynomo that spark plug but Posey is the team’s superstar.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com