A two-game series for Bay Area bragging rights concludes on Wednesday with the San Francisco Giants hosting the Oakland Athletics.
The Giants won the first game of the series on Tuesday night, 8-2, and are favored to win on Wednesday with a moneyline of -150. Meanwhile, Oakland’s moneyline is +120 while the over/under is set at 7.5 runs.
Tuesday’s win was the fifth in a row for the Giants. San Francisco swept the Nationals over the weekend and one a single game against the Brewers on Monday before returning home and staying hot. The five-game winning streak has given the Giants the second-most wins in the big leagues and given them a half-game lead in the NL West.
As for the A’s, Tuesday’s loss dropped them to .500 on the season. To be fair, Oakland has been able to stay afloat better than expected early in the season after all of the team’s trades late in the offseason. However, the A’s have now lost four of their last six games and are starting to find themselves in a slump.
Gonna Get Burned
The good news for the A’s is that Paul Blackburn will take the mound on Wednesday, giving them a chance to split the two-game series.
Over his first three starts of the season, Blackburn is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA and a WHIP of 0.80, perhaps becoming Oakland’s new ace. More importantly, the A’s have won all three of his starts.
On the other hand, San Francisco’s lineup has heated up during the team’s five-game winning streak. The Giants have scored at least four runs in all five games, averaging 7.2 runs per game during that stretch.
Joc Pederson has been the leader thus far, batting .347 with an OPS of 1.132, while Wilmer Flores, Mike Yastrzemski, and others have heated up during the team’s winning streak.
The Long Man
San Francisco will send Sam Long to the mound in Wednesday’s game. Sam has pitched just 5.2 innings this season despite making two starts and three relief appearances.
The lefty has allowed no runs and just three hits over those 5.2 innings, although he’s unlikely to pitch more than two innings, meaning this will be a bullpen game for the Giants.
In other words, the Giants will likely send five or six pitchers to the mound against an ice-cold Oakland lineup. In their last seven games, the A’s have scored two runs or less six times, averaging a pitiful 1.9 runs per game during that stretch.
Sheldon Neuse is the only batter who’s produced with any consistency this season, and all of Oakland’s regulars but Neuse have been in a deep slump over the past week.
Athletics/Giants Betting Prediction
With the Giants having a bullpen game and the A’s sending Blackburn to the mound, the door is slightly ajar for Oakland to pull off the surprise win. But the A’s have been too bad offensively lately to think that they’ll suddenly come alive.
Plus, the A’s don’t have enough value to take a chance on a team that’s been this bad lately, making San Francisco a safe bet in this game.
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