The annual meeting between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants begin today as the Giants visit Oakland for a two-game set before finishing off the matchup in San Francisco immediately following.

This is the first time that the two teams would play at two venues in consecutive days. This comes as part of MLB’s new approach to Interleague play with both leagues featuring 15 teams.

This might actually be the best approach for this series. Even though three-game sets between the two teams would provide more revenue and excitement, the current format allows the fanbase to get as much out of this rivalry in one week.

Starting on Memorial Day and extending it through the week cuts on travel even though the distance isn’t very long. Also, it intensifies the matchups even more with it being a four-game series.

Condensing this rivalry into one week seems to allow the players to get it out of the way in a sense. I’m sure that most players would prefer to get all the Interleague games out of the way as soon as possible so they can resume their own games against league opponents.

This should be a fun week and with both teams starting to find their groove, it could be good times in the Bay.