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Adam Dunn not in A's lineup for wild-card game against Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Oakland Athletics manager Bob Melvin said he let slugger Adam Dunn know "earlier in the day" Tuesday that he would not be in the lineup at designated hitter for the American League wild-card game against Kansas City. Melvin didn't want Dunn, who's never played in a postseason game in 14 years in the majors, to find out he wasn't starting once he reached Kauffman Stadium and saw the lineup posted.
Right-hander James Shields starts for the Royals, with Jon Lester going for the A's. Dunn's left-handed bat is among the more likely to hit a home run, or reach base via a walk, for either team. He's frequently a fixture against right-handers. As Melvin points out, just because Dunn isn't starting doesn't mean he won't play, or even figure prominently in the outcome.
"He understands, too," Melvin said. "All our guys know that we do things a little differently here at times. We're trying to play for the day. ... He may have the biggest at-bat of the game. So he's ready for that."
Brandon Moss instead will DH for the A's, who fit lineups together like puzzles, fiddling with platoons and other considerations like few other teams in the league. Stephen Vogt is set to play first base, Sam Fuld will take left and Josh Reddick will be in right. Along with putting Geovany Soto behind the plate, Melvin has assembled nearly the best defensive lineup the A's can show the Royals. That factor could be very important at Kauffman Stadium, which has some of the larger dimensions (and trickier corners) in the league.
But, with Moss at DH, that leaves Dunn as the odd man out, after being left out of the postseason for 2,001 career games.
Dunn batted .219 with a .340 on-base percentage, .433 slugging percentage and 20 home runs on the season, though once he came to the A's for 76 plate appearances in September after a trade with the White Sox, he batted just .212/.316/.318 with two homers. Dunn's 20 home runs overall would have ranked third on the team had he been with Oakland all season, and his 65 walks would have been fourth.
A day before, Royals manager Ned Yost talked about the prospect of having to face Dunn:
"It's scary too," Yost said. "Adam Dunn is a guy that can hit the ball out of the ballpark in any field, even in our big park here. He's crushed balls here. ... He can catch one and put three runs on the board in a hurry."
In a matchup between Shields and Lester, any run production would seem to be a premium, and Dunn is more likely to beef up Oakland's lineup than Vogt or Fuld — or even Moss, the way he's been hitting. Though he hit 25 home runs and was Oakland's second-most productive hitter overall, Moss hit .173 with a .274 slugging percentage in the second half of the season. This is the part of Melvin's decision that is most curious.
Neither Dunn nor Moss has had much success against Shields in small sample sizes.
One likely reason for Moss's struggles at the plate is a right hip injury that will require offseason surgery.
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David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rdbrown@yahoo-inc.com and follow him on Twitter!
