Well, the 2011 Bay Bridge series is in the books, and the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s once again have swept each other at their home ballparks. Things were looking up a bit for the G-Men heading into this series with Pablo Sandoval’s return to the lineup and the Giants maintaining their lead in the NL West over Arizona the series before. But the Oakland Coliseum continues to give San Francisco fits offensively, and has for some time now.
The Giants haven’t won in Oakland since 2009, and I went back and looked up the scores from last year at the Coliseum. They scored one total run last year in their sweep at the Big O, getting blanked twice during that series compared to the 10 runs put up by the A’s. They scored five during this series compared to 11 by the A’s, with only six extra base hits and one homer the entire series. Were the A’s pitchers that dominant or was the Giants offense that bad? In a word, yes.
Giants fans shouldn’t hold their head in shame though; the Bay Bridge series isn’t as do-or-die as say Yankees/Red Sox or Cubs/Cardinals. There’s no division title at stake, just some bragging rights. There isn’t a bunch of bad blood or smack talk either, Bay Area fans seem to respect each other’s clubs enough not to get blinded with rage by a loss. And both teams own three wins against each other this year, leaving a perfect tie and just enough to brag about on both sides.
Now all we need is another Bay Bridge World Series to take the stakes of this rivalry to another level.
For more on the Giants and A’s, head over to McCovey Chronicles and Athletics Nation to get your fix.