Oakland Athletics at Kansas City Royals
Tuesday, Sept. 30, 8:07 p.m. ET. TBS
Jon Lester (16-11, 2.46) vs. James Shields (14-8, 3.21)
Oakland A’s Lineup
1. Coco Crisp, CF
2. Sam Fuld, LF
3. Josh Donaldson, 3B
4. Brandon Moss, DH
5. Josh Reddick, RF
6. Jed Lowrie, SS
7. Stephen Vogt, 1B
8. Geovany Soto, C
9. Eric Sogard, 2B
Kansas City Royals Lineup
1. Alcides Escobar, SS
2. Nori Aoki, RF
3. Lorenzo Cain, CF
4. Eric Hosmer, 1B
5. Billy Butler, DH
6. Alex Gordon, LF
7. Salvador Perez, C
8. Omar Infante, 2B
9. Mike Moustakas, 3B
The clubs squared off seven times this season, with the Royals winning five of the seven. However, the two games the A’s won were with Jon Lester starting.
In December 2012, the Royals went all-in to improve their starting rotation by acquiring Shields and Wade Davis from the Rays for top outfield prospect Wil Myers. This past July 31, the A’s acquired Lester from the Red Sox along with Jonny Gomes for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.
“It’s everything that we hoped it would be,” general manager Dayton Moore said of getting Shields. “When you make deals, you hope and expect them to work for both organizations. I think it’s turned out that way. It strengthened our pitching to a point where we were able to play competitive baseball from the first day to the last.”
