Record: 42-39 Home; 47-34 Road

Manager: Ned Yost - no post season managerial experience.

Injuries: Danny Duffy day to day, will be available for post season. Christian Colon 3B, 15 day DL. 

 

The Royals will send “Big Game” James Shields to the mound for their Wild Card play in game. Shields is the staff ace with a WHIP of 1.18 and 180 strikeouts. He has logged 227 innings this year, and the team will be looking for 7 out of him in this game. The idea will be to turn the 8th inning over to the newly unhittable Wade Davis and then closer Greg Holland, he of the 45 saves in the 9th. Should the game get away from Shields early lefty Danny Duffy would look to stop the bleeding as he has the best “stuff” of the others on the staff with a consistent mid 90’s fastball. 

 

The Royals haven’t been a home run hitting team in 30 years. Alex Gordon is their top hitter leading them in homers, RBI, Runs & OPS. Gordon led the team with 19 home runs and 74 RBI, they are a team constructed to get on base and get timely hits evidenced by their ranking 4th in the AL in batting average at .263. Alcides Escobar leads off with a paltry .310 on base % but he works best in this lineup here due to his speed as he stole 31 bases. He rarely walks with only 22 on the season but has scored 73 runs. Behind him is where the Royals start to rake. Nori Aoki is a perfect slap hitter for the 2nd spot, and his .348 OBP and 49 strike outs shows that he can advance the runner when the situation calls for it. He is followed by the trio of Eric Hosmer, Billy Butler and Alex Gordon. These three all have gap power and have been hitting better in the month of September, as Hosmer has come off the DL and Butler has seen his average rise after a very slow start to the season. 2B Omar Infante has dropped in the order but he is a playoff veteran and steps up when the team has needed a big hit. Mike Moustakas has been a disaster for two years but with no other viable option he plays at 3B, and Lorenzo Cain will split time in CF with Jerrod Dyson. Both play above average defense and with Gordon’s high caliber arm in left form one of the best defensive outfields in the big leagues. The wild card for the Royals is All-Star catcher Salvador Perez. He has gone long stretches without having an impact bat this season. The Royals dropped him in the lineup to 7th and will need him to find his stroke to make any sort of playoff run. 

 

To protect a late lead the Royals will substitute Dyson to RF for Aoki to cover more ground. The infield stays the same. Josh Willingham will be the first bat off the bench for Yost. He is a veteran who hits over .300 against left handed pitching. 

 

---

 

Record:  48-33 Home; 40-41 Road

Manager: Bob Melvin - post season experience: 2007 Arizona lost in NLCS; 2012 & 2013 lost to Detroit in ALDS with A's. 

Injuries: C John Jaso and OF Craig Gentry are on the 7 day DL due to a concussion and not expected to play again this season. 

 

Trade deadline acquisition Jon Lester is lined up to start the Wild Card game. Lester of course has plenty of playoff experience being part of the Red Sox championship team last year as well as the 2007 championship team. Lester has held opponents to a .213 average as an Athletic at home in 7 starts. This is pertinent because on the flip side he has a .273 average against pitching at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City this year. If he falters early Melvin could turn to lefty Drew Pomeranz to eat some innings until they can get to a more traditional bullpen situation. If Lester can give them 7 innings, Luke Gregerson will take the 8th and closer Sean Doolittle will work the 9th. Oakland does have additional experience in the bullpen with former All-Star Ryan Cook as well as Dan Otero who have combined to have appeared in 124 games this year. 

 

The A’s inability to score after and even before the trade of Yoenis Cespedes has been widely documented. Coco Crisp owns the top batting average and OBP among the regulars and non-incidentally hits leadoff for them. He is followed by utility man Sam Fuld who is playing every day due to Gentry being out with a concussion, and being a steady outfielder. Josh Donaldson is the team’s best hitter with 28 home runs, but like the next guy in the order Brandon Moss has struggled to consistently hit for power and production. Adam Dunn was brought in to help take some pressure off these two, but at this stage of his career is either going to strike out or hit a home run and the latter hasn’t happened all that much. Johnny Gomes would pinch hit for Dunn if a lefty came in. Jed Lowrie is the regular at SS and is steady yet unspectacular. 1B is a rotation of Nate Frieman and Steven Vogt with Moss sometimes seeing a game at the spot. Vogt and Derek Norris are both catchers but have rotated at DH to stay fresh. They also have the two highest averages on the team despite not having every day at bats. Alberto Callaspo and Eric Sogard play 2B with Sogard the better defender and Callaspo better with the stick. 

 

Sogard would certainly come in to play 2B in a late inning situation and Josh Reddick would likely play RF. Nate Frieman is a more natural 1B than Vogt. 

 

With the game being played at Kauffman Stadium the Royals have the home edge. The managerial edge goes to Melvin as he has proven himself a better game manager than Yost in the past. The Royals hit left handed pitching very well with 6 regulars hitting over .300 this season. On the other hand the other three (Infante, Perez & Moustakas) are under .220 so there is a clear line for who is likely to get pinch hit for. What looks good for Oakland is that Shields is an average pitcher at home going 4-6 with a WHIP of 1.22 and ERA of 3.51. Oakland doesn’t hit righties particularly well save for Vogt and Reddick, both of whom are over .270.