The 22 seed Oakland Athletics versus the 21 St. Louis Cardinals are the next match up in the play in round. The A’s finished the season 69-93 and finished in 6th in the American Leagues West, while the Cardinals had a record of 69-93 and finished 5th in the National League East. The Cardinals started righty John Denny (14-11 2.96 Grade 14), the A’s countered with right hander Matt Keough (8-15 3.24 Grade 12). The pitchers commanded this game except for 1 pitch to Ted Simmons who hit a 3 run homer in the first inning for all the runs in the game. Keough just allowed 1 more hit the rest of the game, but Denny was too tough tossing a 2 hit shoutout to give the Cardinals the 1-0 lead in the series.
Final Score: Cardinals 3, A’s 0
WP: John Denny (1-0)
LP: Matt Keough (0-1)
HR’s: Cardinals – Ted Simmons (1)
A’s can still steal home field advantage with a win in game two. Oakland sends Chief Johnson to the mound opposite Bob Forsch.