The Kansas City Royals and LA Angels are playing live on the MLB postseason schedule on Thursday and the ALDS playoffs Game 1 matchup starts on TBS at 9:07 pm ET from Angel Stadium of Anaheim in California as Jason Vargas and Jered Weaver duel in the first matchup in the American League series between KC and Los Angeles.
The Royals come into the game after one of the best playoff matchups ever, as they won in a walk off against the Athletics to give Oakland their collapse for this season. KC is into the playoffs for the first time in nearly 30 years and now they have the chance to try and steal a game on the road. Vargas previously played with the Angels and now he gets the ball after James Shields pitched for the Royals in the wild card game.
Ned Yost almost blew the game, but Salvador Perez and the rest of the team came through and now they are into the ALDS. Some may find this surprising, but this is the first playoff appearance for Mike Trout and the first time that Albert Pujols has made the playoffs since moving to LA from St. Louis. Naturally his Cardinals are also in the playoffs in the NL and that would be a very intriguing matchup if those teams played.
The two teams in this series could help makeup very interesting World Series matchups, as the Royals and Cardinals would be playing an in-state series and that would be the I-70 series. The Angels and the Dodgers are from the same city and that would see Clayton Kershaw against Mike Trout, while the Angels also could play an in-state series that would be a rematch against the Giants from 2002 if those two teams make it as well.
The first game of the series is on Thursday and things pick up on Friday and will have Yordano Ventura and he will be up against Matt Shoemaker. Ventura nearly blew the game and while he was pitching, it was Ned Yost's fault, as he brought in a rookie starter to pitch relief over some of the best relievers in baseball and he basically allowed a blast to Brandon Moss within three pitches. Obviously the Royals came back, but Ventura had a horrible appearance and Yost's reasons for bringing him in made no sense with the bullpen he has. Lucky dude.
The Angels are obviously the favored team here and in the next game after the second matchup things will return to Kauffman Stadium, which was loud and crazy until Moss hit that homer. The team pulled it out and they used their speed to get it done, as Geovany Soto was knocked out of the game and that left Derek Norris to give up a bunch of stolen bases and they likely will try and do the same against the Angels.
Check here for the Kansas City Royals and LA Angels live coverage.