The San Francisco Giants have had the luxury of playing mostly very bad teams this season in interleague play. But even against the below-.500 likes of the A's, the Orioles, and the Blue Jays, San Francisco has an interleague record of only 6-6.
Now the Giants have a very good American League team on their hands. The Boston Red Sox are in town for a three-game stand at AT&T Park, which began Friday night. The Giants' home field advantage was in full force as the men in orange beat the Sox 5-4.
This will only be the Red Sox second visit ever to AT&T Park, and their first since its name was changed to AT&T Park. When the Red Sox return to the Bay Area again for in interleague play in 2016, the park will probably have yet another name.
California has not been so hospitable to the Red Sox lately. And Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon has blown two leads in his last two appearances. "I've just got to go back to the drawing board," the four-time All Star admitted to MLB.com.
Nonetheless, the Red Sox are one the premier teams in baseball and the Giants are struggling to stay in the Wild Card race. "Being where we're at in the standings, they're big games," Giants center fielder Aaron Rowand told the Chronicle.
They are particularly big games for people in the ticket scalping business. The Sawx are one of the biggest draws in baseball, and the Bay Area is home to large numbers of New England expatriates.
The Giants organization realizes this, and is "dynamic pricing" these tickets to higher levels. "It's quite likely that Thursday's $57.50 price for a left field seat at the Red Sox opener may not last," Andrew Ross writes in the Chronicle. "The same seat for the June 15 evening game against the Orioles went for $6."
Sports
The Giants and Red Sox also play Saturday at 4 pm. PDT Saturday and 1 p.m. PDT Sunday.
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who prefers Tony Bennett over Neil Diamond.
