Northern California sports outlet FSN Bay Area has stepped up to the HD bat, announcing it will start broadcasting Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants games in HD for the remainder of the Major League Baseball season.

Starting today with the Giant's home game against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Rainbow Media Holdings subsidiary will broadcast 37 games in HD to Comcast Corp. HD digital cable subscribers. The first Oakland A's game in HD will follow tomorrow. In all, FSN Bay Area will broadcast 14 Athletics games and 23 Giants games in the high-def format.

"We're excited to deliver the high-definition television experience to our viewers," Jeff Krolik, FSN Bay area's senior vice president and general manager, in a release. "We're very pleased to join our partners at Comcast in making HD programming available and to be among the first regional sports networks in the country to present home team action in HD."

FSN Bay Area also plans to extend HD to basketball's Golden State Warriors and San Jose Sharks this fall, according to Krolik. The sports net reaches more than 3.6 million households in Northern California and Northern Nevada.