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Battle of the Bay Looks Like a True Battle This Year

AL West Oakland A's

Every year the Bay Area’s two baseball teams battle it out. They are separated by one landmark, the Bay Bridge. They play for regional bragging rights and the Bay Bridge Trophy . But this year’s Bay Bridge Series between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants will be a true battle. This season, both teams are legitimate contenders for the first time since they each made the playoffs back in 2014.

The Giants took 2-of-3 games in San Francisco earlier this season. But the A’s still have a legitimate chance to hold onto the trophy which they won last year.

The Giants were a team destined to be competitive in the near future. But they have taken the game of baseball by storm, performing well on all cylinders and still leading baseball’s toughest division.

The A’s meanwhile have been riding a streaky wave at various points in the season thanks to stellar starting pitching, flashes of bullpen support and their fair share of bashing at the plate. This combined with great defense has put them right in the postseason mix as they are just clinging on to that second wild card spot and sit just 2.5 games out of first in the American League West. But the team has seen some offensive deficiencies as of late. They will look to this series to turn themselves around.

Friday night’s series opener resulted in a 4-1 victory by the A’s. This victory gave the A’s renewed hope in winning this year’s series. But this small deficit of a score seemed even smaller for someone watching the game. A’s starter James Kaprielian and Giants starter Alex Wood each held the opposition scoreless through the first three innings of work, managing to limit the offensive damage on the night.

This pitchers dual was only the start of what is expected to look like a competitive postseason matchup this weekend. Two of the team’s most touted starters will go head-to-head in Saturday’s matchup. Kevin Gausman who leads a strong Giants pitching staff with a 2.40 ERA and 10.7 strikeouts through nine innings will face off against a strikeout machine of a pitcher in Sean Manaea.

While that trophy is nice from a local standpoint, each team has something bigger at stake to play for this weekend. The series alone could very well turn the tide of each teams’ fate moving forward in these last months of the regular season.

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