Kansas City @ Oakland preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 29, 2019 ) Oakland 9, Kansas City 8

The red-hot Oakland Athletics are winners of six in a row as they try to secure the top American League wild card spot. The Athletics will try to continue the hot streak when they return home for the start of a six-game homestand and host the Kansas City Royals on Monday.

Oakland won 11 of its last 13 games to move ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Indians in a three-team race for the two wild card spots and is coming off a sweep of the Texas Rangers in which it pounded out 28 runs over three games. The Athletics, who will not face a team with a winning record over the final 12 contests of the regular season, sit three games clear of the third-place Indians in that wild card race and set a franchise record when Matt Chapman homered in the ninth inning on Sunday to give the team 244 blasts on the season. The Royals are losers of three in a row and were outscored 22-5 by the Houston Astros over the weekend. Kansas City will try to slow the Oakland attack with right-hander Glenn Sparkman while Oakland counters with veteran righty Tanner Roark.

TV: 10:07 p.m. ET, FS Kansas City, NBCS California (Oakland)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Royals RH Glenn Sparkman (4-11, 5.94 ERA) vs. Athletics RH Tanner Roark (10-8, 4.01)

Sparkman snapped a string of nine straight winless starts when he held the Chicago White Sox to three runs and four hits over five innings on Wednesday. The 27-year-old completed six innings twice in his last 10 starts and yielded at least one home run in nine of those 10 turns. Sparkman was not at his best at home against Oakland on Aug. 29, when he was lit up for seven runs on nine hits - one homer - over 4 1/3 innings to absorb a loss.

Roark is 4-1 with a 3.40 ERA in seven starts since arriving in a trade from the Cincinnati Reds but is coming off the worst of those seven turns after being reached for five runs and eight hits over 5 2/3 innings by the Houston Astros on Tuesday. The Illinois native, who still came away with the win on Tuesday, surrendered two or fewer earned runs in five of his seven outings with the Athletics. Roark was reached for four runs and five hits - two homers - over six innings at Kansas City on Aug. 28 and did not factor in the decision.

WALK-OFFS

1. Athletics SS Marcus Semien hit his 30th home run on Sunday, giving the team three players with 30 or more blasts (Matt Chapman and Matt Olson, 34).

2. Kansas City 2B-OF Whit Merrifield (193) needs seven hits to reach 200 for the first time in his career.

3. Oakland 1B Seth Brown doubled four times in his last four games.

PREDICTION: Athletics 7, Royals 3