For the first time in six years, the A's will play a playoff game at the Coliseum.
Oakland edged Seattle 1-0 on Saturday night to lock up home-field advantage in the AL Wild Card Game. The A's will host the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night and the team is expecting a wild atmosphere.
"I've pitched at the Coliseum in the playoffs before," starting pitcher Brett Anderson told reporters. "There's not an atmosphere like it. It's going to be rowdy. It will be fun to watch."
A's manager Bob Melvin can't wait to see what the Coliseum looks like.
"There are going to be 50,000 people in Oakland, I've got a feeling," Melvin said. "When we get that big of a crowd at home, they have an effect. So we're excited about going home in front of our fans. There's a great bond between us and the fans there and they can get pretty loud."
The A's have played terrific baseball at home this season, going 52-27 at the Coliseum, the fourth-best home record in MLB. Now the atmosphere will ratchet up to another level, one that most of the team has yet to experience.
Sports
"The crowd's going to be -- these guys have no idea," Anderson said. "It's going to be fun. It's like a Raiders game. You get the Black Hole, you get crazy people. Usually there's some sort of down period in baseball, or even between innings, but the last time I started there, there was just constant noise and so it's pretty fun to be a part of."
Despite clinching a playoff spot on Friday, the A's were disappointed that they let an opportunity for home-field advantage slip away. They certainly made up for it on Saturday.
[RELATED: Cash discusses challenges of Coliseum]
"That's what everybody was talking about when they came off the field -- that we're going back to Oakland," Melvin told reporters. "That was huge. Obviously, we wanted to get in and the next objective was to get home. So both things done and we'll probably give some guys (the day) off tomorrow."
The A's still haven't announced a starting pitcher for the Wild Card Game, but it figures to either be left-hander Sean Manaea or righty Mike Fiers. The Rays will go with All-Star right-hander Charlie Morton. First pitch is set for 5:09 p.m. PT.
