Sports Radio Service


		Michael Duca on A's and Giants By Michael Duca May 20, 2011

	Sportsradio: Now you can bake a cake, Madison Bumgarner lit the world on fire on Thursday night with his first victory in L.A. in a 3-1 win. His pitching performance was just as good as his others but this time his offense finished ahead and he got the win. After talking with Madison over the last few weeks you can imagine for him it was a sweet victory? It must have been. He didn't even want to talk about the double he hit that led to a run ("I just got lucky, I guess"), and we all know that pitchers would rather talk about their hitting than almost anything else. It has to be a relief to no longer be "winless". He has pitched well, his velocity is where it needs to be, and yesterday, he started out 25 hitters with first-pitch strikes, which is always a recipe for success. Attacking the strike zone is the toughest thing for a young pitcher to learn; Bumgarner, at 21, seems to understand it perfectly. Sportsradio: Talk about Mark DeRosa's injury it's like coach Ron Wotus was saying he felt for DeRosa after reinjuring his left wrist swinging the bat. After all of DeRosa's hard work to come back from last year how long will he be out this time, is the injury as bad as last season, and how much will he be missed from the line up? Again with the medical prediction questions? I should have a free month at Holiday Inns by now, with all the nights I've had to spend there to answer these. It's serious. Personally, I expect it to be potentially career-ending serious. Like most other observers, I've never seen anyone in quite so much pain at the simple act of cocking a bat. If your hands are not healthy, you can not hit. Period. DeRosa underwent tests, including what was expected to be an MRI, Thursday in San Francisco, and results were supposed to be announced after the game. They were not. That's not good news, for the team or for DeRosa. As for his impact on the lineup -- he was in the middle of an 0-for-23 skid, the longest hitless streak of his career. While it certainly feels unkind to write this, it's hard to imagine that they can't easily replace that lack of production. Sportsradio: The A's are hanging with the Rangers for the chase for first place, they played a great series with the Angels and Twins on the homestand and now face a three game series on the road in San Francisco. The A's handled the Twins well for an 11-1 win on Thursday's get away game talk about the swinging A's do you see this line up doing some damage in the City over the weekend in their chase of Anaheim? No. That's not to mean that it won't happen, but these two pitching staffs rank in the top 7 in every major category (higher in most) against all comers. They should literally feast on the struggling-to-score lineups that they each throw out on the field. Swingin A's? More like swinging-and-missing A's. Matsui will be limited to pinch-hitting duty. Josh Willingham might run into a pitch this weekend, but he might also strike out 11 times. The starting pitching matchups favor the A's. The bullpens are about equal -- I'll take my chances with Brian Wilson over Brian Fuentes every day, although both of them make watching the Life of Brian more of a scary movie than a funny one.