The AL Wild Card game is on the schedule for Tuesday and the TV start time and channel has the matchup on at 8 pm ET from TBS as the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics battle to see who will advance to the next round of the playoffs against the Angels in the American League division series and this will have James Shields against Jon Lester for the pitching duel.
KC comes into the game after making it to the playoffs for the first time in two decades and the Athletics are coming into the game after nearly blowing their season. The wild card game comes ahead of the NL matchup and the other AL series has the Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers matching up. The Royals feel that they are in great position to win since they are at home at Kaufman Stadium, while the A's feel they have the perfect pitcher going in Lester.
Lester has one of the best postseason ERAs and he has pitched in numerous big games, including in the World Series. The Athletics come in after winning over the Rangers to end the season, while the Royals come in after getting to 89 wins and winning over the White Sox to get in. The Royals and Athletics play ahead of the Giants and Pirates and that game will be in Pittsburgh for the NL wild card game. The wild card format has the one game playoff ahead of the next series and those will get started on Thursday and Friday after these games go down.
The American League playoffs start up on Thursday with two games and on Friday there will be four games total with the ALDS continuing and NLDS starting up. The Dodgers and the Cardinals will be playing and the Washington Nationals are the team waiting for the wild card. The TV coverage across the playoffs and leagues will be on different stations, with Fox, Fox Sports 1, ESPN and TBS all handling various games and series. The World Series has the earliest start date on October 21 and it will not extend into November if the series goes seven games. The coverage for the World Series will be on FOX and this season the American League has home field advantage after winning the All-Star game.
The Pirates are into the playoffs for the second year in a row and that snapped their streak from two decades ago last year, while the Royals are in for the first time in nearly 30 years. The Royals traded for James Shields last year and now that is paying off, as he is getting set to start the wild card game Shields is called Big Game James by many and now he has the chance to show off why.
