The Kansas City Royals have been enjoying the arm of pitcher James Shields. The veteran has been excelling recently in Kansas City and is doing even better against the Oakland Athletics, a team built for the postseason. Shields and the Royals are looking to win the series over the current division leaders and inch closer to the postseason themselves.
Shields is 11-6 with a 3.25 ERA overall this season. Several of those wins come against the Oakland Athletics, a team he has surrendered just four runs to in over 25 innings recently. He went eight innings against the team in early August, giving up a pair of home runs and two other hits. He has paired that success with overall solid pitching. Shields is currently in a stretch where he is 3-2 with a 1.63 ERA. That is a welcomed sight after he went 2-1 with a 5.66 ERA during another stretch. In his last start, Shields gave up just four hits in a win against the San Francisco Giants.
These stats do not speak well for Oakland who has hit a skid recently. The Athletics have earned just three runs in three losses. Jeff Samardzija will pitch for Oakland. He is 3-1 with a 3.08 ERA with team. In his most recent start, he gave up seven hits and two runs over six innings in a win over the Minnesota Twins. Oakland is hopeful he can help pull the team out of their funk. Josh Donaldson hopes to do that with his bat. He is currently hitting .400 win a 10-game hit streak. Against Shields, he is batting 2 for 6 with a home run.
Out of all the Kansas City hitters, Nori Aoki has the best success against Samardzija. He is 7 for 16 with a double and two triples. Aoki is currently batting .343 with 13 runs in his last 20 games, numbers Oakland needs right now in order to keep the division lead.
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