by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–There was no earthly way at the end the first inning of the first game with the Angels and A’s on Tuesday that you were going to be watching a pitchers duel. It was 5-2 A’s the Anegls were kind of limping along in the first inning on two consecutive pitches they gave up five runs and after that they seem to retire everybody they faced.

Meanwhile A’s pitcher Sonny Gray coughed up two in the top of the first but retired 16 straight after that it was pretty amazing. The next time the Angels got a base runner was in the second inning and then later in the seventh. So somebody asked if it were possible to watch a 6-2 pitchers duel and the answer is yes. Jared Weaver the Angels starter threw 91-92 MPH and got more control over his pitches and was able to command part of the strike zone.

On the A’s offense there’s four guys in the middle of that batting order that are hitting over .330, Josh Reddick (.360), Stephen Vogt (.355), Ike Davis (.328), and Billy Butler (.313). You should be able to score that way and you should be able to win some games. The relief staff needs to hold the lead and the defense has to have gloves with no holes in them. The A’s have made errors in 21 games. The A’s simply cannot afford to do that in this series with the Angels.

San Francisco Giants update: Giants catcher Buster Posey hit a two run homer for the gamer in the 2-1 win over the Dodgers on Tuesday night. An awful lot of credit has to go to Giants starter Madison Baumgarner he entered the game with an ERA up around 4.00 plus. Mad Bum basically said that enough was enough and that the Giants weren’t going to allow any more runs.

The Giants want to make hay and make some moves since the Dodgers are an extraordinary team, This reminds me a lot of a few years ago when the Dodgers got off to a poor start but later picked up Henley Ramirez with Yesiel Puig in the line up together and went out and played .700 ball for the last two thirds of the season.

This year this Dodgers team is missing pitcher Brandon McCarthy for the rest of the year, Hyun Jin Ryu is out for quite awhile, their closer Kenly Jansen is out for quite awhile, Puig is out right now. The Dodgers have five or six players on the DL and when they get healthy their going to be tough to make up ground on.

Michael Duca does Giants and A’s commentary each week listen to his podcast below at http://www.sportsrasdioservice.com