Sports Radio Service


		Michael Duca on A's and Giants By Michael Duca August 21, 2010

	Sportstalk: Michael how important was it for the Giants to get out of Philadelphia and get a new change of scenery after dropping two of three to the Phils and winning the opening game of the series in St.Louis? Eh. Does not matter where they are, they need to hit in a timely fashion, play good situational baseball, and win every series. They have a chance to win the series against St. Louis Sunday, and come home with a .500 road trip against two playoff teams. That would be good. Sportstalk: The Giants are chasing Philadelphia in the wild card race and are still close with one game out. The Cards are no push over how successful will the Giants need to be in St.Louis to overtake the wild card lead? They won't take over the wild card lead this weekend. Philly helped by losing to the Nats, and the Padres have suddenly become a normal team, taking the pipe in Milwaukee, of all places. There's still plenty of baseball -- remember 2002, when they were about 10 games behind Arizona and grabbed the wild card late, but rode to game 7 of the World Series? It matters some how you play in August, but it matter most how you play in late September and October. Sportstalk: Talk a little bit about Kevin Kouzmanoff and his contribution to the A's he's likable by the club, has had some clutch hits like on Friday night against the Rays to win the ball game in the eighth inning for what turned out to be the winning run for a 5-4 win. Kouz leads the team in RBIs with 56 and has 49 runs scored and is second in homers with 10 behind Kurt Suzuki who has 12, with the way the A's struggle sometimes Kouzmanoff is a critical contributor? Everyone who has the strength to carry a baseball bat to home plate and swing it in anger at the opponents is a critical contributor. The A's are getting stunningly good pitching (team ERA is near 3.50 in the American League!), so it doesn't take a LOT of hitting to win games, but this team really needs a bat or two much worse than the Giants did. Oakland has nobody, no body, zero people, who strike fear into an opposing pitching staff. That will have to change to take this team to the next level.