The Oakland Athletics play the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday in Game 1 of the 2014 AL Wild Card. The postseason game starts at 8:00 p.m. ET. Watch the live stream or listen to the radio broadcast below.
Oakland hopes their big trade this season can finally pay off, starting on Tuesday. Jon Lester (16-11, 2.46 ERA) duels with James Shields (14-8, 3.21) in the series opener, and A's manager Bob Melvin didn't shy away from pointing out the similarities in how the two pitchers ended up on their respective teams.
"I think it's real similar to the Lester situation for us," Melvin told MLB.com. "[Shields, whom the Royals traded for in December 2012, has] been here for a while longer, where Jon was kind of a hired gun brought in, he and Jonny Gomes with a couple months left.
"I think their feeling amongst their team is probably going to be similar to the way that we feel based on history in pitching those games. There are certain guys that step up and embrace the pressure and embrace being in that situation, and you're talking about both the starting pitchers [Tuesday]."
Kansas City sent top outfield prospect Wil Myers to the Tampa Bay Rays to acquire Shields and Wade Davis, hoping the pitchers - namely Shields - would dramatically improve the team's rotation.
"When I came over here, I knew exactly what was going on," said Shields. "I knew that this city's been wanting a championship team for a long time, and a playoff team. Hopefully we did the city proud. We've got a long way to go still, but we're going to keep grinding."
Watch the live stream HERE, or listen to the radio broadcast HERE (OAK) and HERE (KC).
