After a season-long grind filled with twists and turns, the Oakland Athletics have one game left with the Texas Rangers in the regular season to decide the American League West title at the O.co Coliseum on Wednesday afternoon.
The A's have already set a record for the most rookie starts this season, and they'll have one more when A.J. Griffin (7-1, 2.71 ERA) makes his final start of the year. Oakland has won 10 of his last 12 outings. The right-hander gave up one run over 5⅔ innings of work on Friday during the A's 8-2 victory over Seattle. Griffin was solid in his only meeting with Texas, allowing just two hits and two walks over six scoreless innings en route to a 4-3 road loss on June 29.
Texas will counter with Ryan Dempster (7-3, 4.64), who has the sixth-best road ERA in the league this season at 2.78. He gave up four earned runs in 5⅔ innings against the Angels in his last outing, taking just his third loss this year. Dempster's only had one career start in Oakland, allowing two runs in 6⅔ innings of a 6-2 victory while with the Cubs back in June of 2010.
This will be the first time since 2002 the AL West has sent two teams to the postseason.
First pitch is set for 12:35 p.m. PT with coverage on CSN California, MLB Network, and 95.7 The Game FM.