Open Thread: Game 117 - Oakland Athleitcs at Kansas City Royals

The A's are right now teetering on the edge of a precipice. If they cannot overcome the 'easy' teams that they face in the next two weeks, they will find themselves out of the very competitive wild card race, and we will be left with hopes for next year and no one-or-more-game-playoff-to-the-playoffs matchup.

This is a night day getaway day for the A's, as they hope to salvage one game from this series with the Royals. Having lost the first two of the series against the Royals, and two of three from the White Sox, the A's need to recapture whatever fire they had when they harangued the Angels in Anaheim.

Dan Straily, arguably the A's best pitching prospect this season, faces off against Luke Hochevar, in a battle of ERA's (5.06 versus 5.32). After Straily's bomb in his last start against the Angels, giving up 5 runs on 4.2 innings with 5 K's, Straily's star dimmed a little bit. Hopefully, we can look forward to an outing which gives credence to his MiLB leading strickout totals, and the hopes that the A's are not dealing with another Jason Windsor, or James Simmons (oh hey, he's alive after all!).

Game starts at 5 Pacific, 7 Central, so stay tuned.