Game Thread #143: Oakland Athletics at Kansas City Royals

The A's are trying to bounce back after a sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners.

Or not, depending on your stance on tanking. But the A's have a golden opportunity to sabotage the Kansas City Royals' postseason dreams, and that's the worthiest goal imaginable.

But before we can get to the glory of either getting the #3 overall pick or destroying the hopes and dreams of Royals fans everywhere, we're going to be treated to a uniquely bad pitching matchup. The A's are throwing Ross Detwiler (1-3, 5.15) against Dillon Gee (6-7, 4.34).

There's nothing much to say about this matchup – Gee and Detwiler are both perfectly replacement level pitchers, coming in at 0.0 and 0.3 fWAR, respectively. The best that you can say about them is that they're healthy and capable of pitching.

Here are the lineups, not featuring new faces Matt Olson and Renato Nunez. After last night's emotionally draining playoff game, you can totally understand giving them a few days off.