Game One Hundred and Twenty-Nine: Kansas City Royals at Oakland Athletics

The sports players of Oakland take on the ruling people of Kansas City this afternoon at the Coliseum. Oakland has taken the first two games of what I like to refer to as the Sewage Series: the two worst teams in baseball colliding in the ballpark notorious for flooding with sewage. The Toilet Bowl is also a fitting name.

Kansas City will start Cole Ragans. Ragans has been knocked around a bit in his last two starts after a sensational beginning to his Royals career, but he’s still missing bats with fourteen strikeouts in those two starts. Overall he has a 2.51 ERA and 2.26 FIP in five starts for the Royals. He faced Oakland in May as a member of the Texas Rangers, allowing one run in 1.1 innings out of the bullpen.

Oakland will counter with Adrián Martínez. Martínez began the year as a multi-inning reliever for the A’s before being sent to Triple-A near the end of May. He served as a starter in the minors but did not go deep into games, generally throwing three or four innings. He was called up earlier this month and will make his first major league start since the end of last season. Martínez has a career 6.10 ERA and 5.02 FIP and has never faced the Royals.

First pitch: 2:37 pm CDT

Royals lineup

Athletics lineup