BY BOB BEHLER

SAN FRANCISCO – When the baseball schedule came out, I circled the Yankees’ series in San Francisco this past weekend. Fly down Saturday morning. Go to two games and fly back Sunday night. See one of the storied franchises with big-time superstars like Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. What we saw was the Yankees’ AAA team, as New York has a dozen players on the injured list, take on a Giants team that is hitting .210.

The highlights of the weekend were a great Saturday night dinner at Original Joe’s. Sitting in the sunshine and enjoying a Polish sausage. Getting our picture taken with Lou Seal. My wife, Theresa, had more highlights as she is a Yankees’ fan.

I have been to many Giants games, both home and road over the years, and I would have to go back to the Candlestick days to find a pair of games that were such no shows. The Giants were down 6-0 on Saturday and 8-0 on Sunday. Both starting pitchers, Derek Holland and Dereck Rodriguez , weren’t ready to go in the first inning. The offense was listless other than one inning in each of the game. Only Pablo Sandoval is hitting above .230 and most of the Giants are hitting barely over .200. It is going to be a long year.

I didn’t expect a good season in 2019. I thought the Giants, with things going right, could play .500 ball. They better be saving all of their hits for a mid-summer run, because I have seen very little in the way of offense all year. Losing tight, exciting games is one thing. Losing games where you are out of it early is another.

The 2019 Yankees are winning with a bunch of players we’ve never heard of. In fact, two or three of the recent call-ups didn’t even have picture to put up on the scoreboard. They hustled, played smart and are keeping New York in the race until its stars come back. Catcher Gary Sanchez returned to the Yankees’ lineup and hit two long home runs. The one on Sunday was as far up into the left field bleachers as I have seen at what is now known as Oracle Park. Saturday’s grand slam was the longest Yankees’ homer of the season … that is before Sunday’s bomb.

The Dodgers come in to start a three-game series Monday. Hopefully it gets better.