by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

photo credit mlb.com of Clay Kershaw

LOS ANGELES–The difference this season, right now, between these two eternal rivals, since the days of New York, could be condensed(in my humble opinion)to this sentence that follows:

“The Giants have one #1 pitcher, while the Dodgers have two #1 pitchers”. Madison Bumgarner for the Orange and Black and Clay Kershaw and Eric Greinke for the Blue and White.

I know everybody has an opinion regarding baseball and the passion runs deep specially in the Bay Area when you mention the Dodgers; not as much in Los Angeles, when you mention the Giants, since in the southland there is little passion for much of anything during a baseball game, except having some good suntan lotion on hand during day games, watching whose is sitting next to Larry King on the seats behind the plate, and leaving Dodgers Stadium by the 7th inning so the traffic jam you encounter is not as nasty as many, coming down from Chávez Ravine.

The glass is half full and half empty. While Dodger fans are gloating because of the recent three-game sweep of the Giants, many Giants fans are saying that their team is very much hurt with so many injuries with Hunter Pence, Brandon Crawford, Joe Panik and Angel Pagan (who just returned to the lineup). The Dodgers also are without Yasiel Puig, however that could even be good news for the Dodgers in the final month of the season, since the unpredictable Cuban could then be ready for postseason.

I want to be objective here, and I think anybody that follows the game can agree, that there is no team, this year in the major leagues with pitchers like Kershaw and Greinke on the same rotation, and that could be the difference for the Dodgers to win this division by…….two games! It is as simple as that.

Can the Giants catch the Dodgers and win the division?….yes, it is possible. Can the Giants catch the Chicago Cubs and win a spot as a wild card? Yes, it is possible.

All that is possible, the Giants did not win the western division in 2014 and they won the World Series. Believe it or not, in the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers they have won their division the last three seasons in a row, something they have never done before, however the last time they made it to the World Series (as I remember well)was in 1988, when during that first game at Dodger Stadium, Kirk Gibson, who could not take batting practice(talking about people hurt)hit that memorable home run off the best reliever in those years Dennis Eckersley. I am sorry A’s fans for bringing that up, but it is part of history.

And yes, the Dodgers can also blow the lead they have over the second place Giants, but they are in a very strong position, and the Giants have to be very healthy the rest of the way to catch up. Buster Posey has to show up and hit some home runs, he is the leader of that team.

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