Giants 2013 schedule: A week in the Big Apple

DENVER -- The Giants and As will have two fewer chances to battle for Bay Area supremacy in 2013, as Major League Baseball clubs released their tentative schedules on Wednesday. Instead of the traditional six-game season series, the Giants and As will play four times from May 27-30, with the first two games at AT&T Park and the next two at the Oakland Coliseum.Its one of many adjustments to accommodate for the transfer of the Houston Astros to the AL West, which leaves 15 teams in both leaguesnecessitating at least one interleague game every day of the regular season.The Giants will play 20 interleague games, five more than this season. Theyll also play 19 games against each of their NL West rivals, where the season series had been 18 games in previous years. (Where did those extra games come from? Well, theyre not playing the Astros anymore.)Aside from four games with the As, interleague play features AL East clubs. The Giants will play a home-and-road series with the Toronto Blue Jays (May 14-45 at Rogers Centre; June 4-5 at AT&T Park), home series with the Baltimore Orioles (Aug. 9-11) and Boston Red Sox (Aug. 19-21) and road series at Tampa Bay (Aug. 2-4) and the New York Yankees (Sept. 20-22.)The most unique portion of the schedule: The Giants first ever visit to new Yankee Stadium will come immediately after a series with the Mets at Citi Fieldmeaning the Giants will spend a solid week in the Big Apple in late September.The Giants open the season on the road at Dodger Stadium with a three-game seires April 2-4 before returning to San Francisco for a six-game homestand with the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies. The home opener is scheduled for April 5 against the Cards.The Giants and As have met six times in every season since 1999; the clubs met just four times in 1997 and 98, the first two years of interleague play.The Giants took two of three in both series with the As this season but trail the all-time series 45-47.