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Morning baseball wooooooo! At least it’s not East Coast midnight baseball, I suppose.
Today the A’s will be trying for the split with the red-hot Royals, who’ve won 10 of their last 11 games. But, hey — that one loss was us! That counts for something, right? This series feels weirdly important for mid-August baseball, and could be a playoff matchup in a few months. So, it would be really nice to not lose it. Really really really nice.
The Royals will be putting veteran RHP James Shields (11-6, 3.25) on the mound. It’s been basically just a week since we’ve last seen this guy, and last time he shut the A’s down pretty good — although the offense was struggling so hard there were some little leaguers who could have shut the A’s down. Keep an eye on Josh Reddick, who hit two homers off of him.
The A’s will be sending out their fourth ace, Jeff Samardzija (5-8, 2.91). Last time out he struggled a bit with his command but still managed to throw a good game versus the Twins. The A’s are going to need some quality innings from him if they want to take this series, which feels weirdly important for mid-August baseball.
Oh, also, Lowrie’s going on the DL according to SuSlu. Well, at least it’s Parrino time!!!!
Here are the lineups:
