Hey Bay Area baseball fans, take a deep breath of relief as your offensively challenged, injury riddled, questionably GM'ed baseball team faces off against another offensively challenged, injury riddled, questionably GM'ed Bay Area baseball team. Interleague baseball, an idea that's won over even us die-hard traditionalists (although we do agree that the whole rivalry thing is overdone) starts this weekend as the A's cross over the Bay Bridge to take on the Giants. These games never have quite the inner-city turf war feel that one sees in New York or Chicago, but they've always been good, well-played games that do seem tolet the other teams' fans crow a bit louder than they usually do. And if that's not the point in these games, we don't know what is.

These games also come at opportune moments for both teams. After getting chewed up and spit out by the Sox and the Yankees, the A's showed signs of life in finally beating the Sox 13-6 last Wednesday. With upcoming games against perpetually sucky Tampa Bay and disappointing Cleveland, the A's might be able to get off the schneid. As for the Giants, well, scoring no runs after playing in two ballparks known as launching pads is never a good sign. On the other hand, as the Chron points out this morning, it was exactly at this time last year that an even more struggling Giants team suddenly sprang to life and reeled off ten straight. With upcoming games against the Dodgers and the first-place Padres and with Jason Schmidt scheduled to get off the DL this Tuesday, this week is as good of a time as any to start putting it together. Or maybe not.