by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–The Giants coming off a five game win streak and a three game sweep of the A’s over the weekend are looking to get on a successful track for the second half of the season. They played some heroic baseball against some of the good teams in the first half and it’s good to see them do some of the things their suppose to do and handle the clubs that are struggling too.

The Giants got to beat on some of the teams that are in disarray too and the A’s qualify and they’ve been expecting it to be raining shoes in that clubhouse. The A’s losing Scott Kazmir to the Houston Astros and that might have thrown them for a loop just as much as last season where they saw some huge deals go down at the trade deadline including Yoenis Cespedes who was dealt to the Red Sox not mention A’s general manager Billy Beane is getting in trade mode as A’s pitcher Tyler Clippard was dealt to the New York Mets on Monday night.

There’s a good shot for the Giants to reside in first place as they are just a game behind the Dodgers for first in the National League West. For the capture of first place for San Francisco it’s going to take a few weeks. They’ve been gaining ground steadily for the last two weeks ever since they bottomed out at 43-43. This might be a case of making hay while the sunshines because the G Men have a pretty rough August coming up.

On the August schedule the Giants face a number of first or second place clubs or ones that are in the thick of competing for post season, Texas, Houston, Washington, St.Louis, Pittsburgh, and yes St.Louis again but at AT&T. They have to face a bunch of teams in the mid west, the east in the saturated heat facing pitching staffs that are kind of older than the usual pitching staffs.The Giants have to be a little concerned about that and the Giants want to get as many in the win column as long as your here in the month of July and playing in cooler weather in the Bay Area the Giants want to take advantage of that.

Tim Hudson could have made it a lot easier on himself by hitting that double with the bases loaded instead of waiting with the bases empty the next time up. That would have cracked that thing wide open and Hudson could have cruised for five or six innings and he could have felt a little better about himself and that game was real close at 4-3 and it was a scuffle for the last four to five innings. He’s pretty pleased to be the 16th pitcher to beat all 30 teams in his career and ironically the 30th team in Sunday’s win was his first team when he broke into the big leagues with the Oakland A’s.You would hate to be Tim Hudson and retire and being one team shy of Brewers pitcher Kyle Lohse.

When Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow said everybody on the Giants can be traded before the deadline except for pitcher Madison Bumgarner and I was asked if that meant catcher Buster Posey could be trade bait and I said no and I meant it. The Giants would no more trade Buster Posey than they would lease this ball park out to the A’s.

Michael Duca does the SF Giants podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com take a listen below