by Michael Duca

San Francisco Giants update: The Giants are headed for the Wild Card playoffs and they’ll start there little adventure in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. The Giants have had trouble against the Pirates this season and that’s when the Pirates couldn’t win at home at PNC in Pittsburgh. Now their the best home team in the National League with a home record of 51-30 tied with the St.Louis Cardinals.

The Bucs are on a huge roll right now they’ve won 13 of their last 17 going into the playoffs. The Giants are going to Pittsburgh with half the line up that they had with no Angel Pagan for sure, no Micheal Morse, no Buster Posey maybe, Hector Sanchez, Matt Cain, and Brandon Belt are already gone for the season, Tim Lincecum has been used to set up and relieve there’s not too many weapons to go to war with for the Giants.

The Giants couldn’t ask for too much more than asking pitcher Madison Baumgarner to do what he has done all season and it’s nothing better than having your Willie McCovey Award winner and Cy Young contender start Wednesday’s wild card game. Nothing better than having Mad Bum going in a one game means everything situation. Unfortunately Baumgarner will be your best hitter in the line up on Wednesday.

There is only so much a pitcher can do for you in a scoreless tie, unfortunately baseball doesn’t go to a penalty kick. Mad Bum does remind you a little bit of former Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson who used to pitch and hit the lights out of the ball. Baumgarner with three home runs has the Giants franchise record for a pitcher in San Francisco that is.

Lincecum got his 100th win off the Padres on Friday night and is in his eighth season with the team. Baumgarner can achieve that and he is a very, very special young man. 26 years old who dropped the B word on the Dodgers Yesil Puig and had the approval of his peers which means more.

Oakland A’s update: For the A’s to get the home advantage that would mean the Kansas City Royals would have to lose twice and the A’s would have to win twice. Recent history doesn’t suggest that’s likely to happen. The A’s also have a minuscule shot at not making the playoffs at all, if they lose twice and Seattle the Angels twice which imminently possible because the Angels are going to rest as many people as they can for the playoffs.

Then everything can go far south as possible and the A’s could find themselves waking up on the wrong side of the border.The A’s Josh Reddick said “go Angels” after their game with the Texas Rangers. The Angels are playing in Seattle but the A’s need to worry about themselves and not worry about getting help from anybody else. If the A’s don’t get in by winning a couple of games their not going to get in.

Right now with the A’s pitching they’ve got to handle games they won 6-2 on Friday night and have to keep things rolling. Earlier they couldn’t score any runs to speak of to support their pitching. A’s pitcher Jeff Samardzija had a number of one run loses this year, I’m sure nothing would please him more in taking the mound in the bottom of the first inning with a three or four run lead.

Sonny Gray starts for Oakland on Sunday and it could be a crucial game for Gray and the A’s and the A’s have to be a little concerned with what they’ve seen in the second half. Pitches are up and I don’t know what it could be but it seems like Gray has struggled as he approaches 180 innings. Maybe Gray will have to go for some strengthing conditioning in the off sesaon to get what he had back again.

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