Baltimore Orioles (16-15) +120, o/u 8 at Oakland Athletics (19-14), 10:05 pm Eastern Monday
by Zman of Predictem.com
A couple of teams struggling to continue their early-season success hook up when the Baltimore Orioles visit the Oakland A’s for the opener of a three-game series Monday night at McAfee Coliseum.
Baseball Bookmakers are listing Oakland as -135 home chalk for Monday’s game, with an over/under of 8 .
Baltimore lost two of three games to the Angels in LA over the weekend, and has lost four of its last five overall, scoring a grand total of 13 runs over that span. So heading into this week’s play, the Orioles are in a three-way tie for second place in the AL East, three games back of the division-leading Boston Red Sox.
The Athletics also lost two of three games over the weekend, at home to the Texas Rangers, and have lost four of their last six overall. So going into Monday’s game, Oakland sits in second place in the AL West, just a game back of the first-place Angels.
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Baltimore is 6-9 on the road this season, but 17-14 vs. the run line and a respectable 13-14 as underdogs. Meanwhile, the A’s are 9-9 at home this year, only 5-7 as favorites but 21-12 vs. the run line.
This is the first encounter between these two teams this season. Last year, these teams split eight games, while the o/u went 3-5, as the games averaged just 7.6 total runs per.
Monday’s series opener matches a pair of young left-handers against each other in Garrett Olson for the O’s vs. Dana Eveland (3-2, 3.67, 1.28 WHIP this year) for the A’s.
Olson has started once so far this season, allowing two ER and nine baserunners (hits + walks) in 6 2/3 innings of a 7-4 win over Tampa Bay last Thursday. Last year, Olson made seven starts, allowing 28 ER and compiling a 28/28 K/BB ratio in 32 1/3 innings of work.
Garrett has never started vs. Oakland.
On the other side of this pitching match-up, Eveland has struggled a bit recently after a good start to this season. He hasn’t pitched through the sixth inning in any of his last four stars, and over the course of his last three outings, including a 6-1 loss at the Angels last Wednesday, Eveland has given up 10 ER and 23 baserunners in 16 1/3 IP. Oakland is 4-2 in Eveland’s starts this year, the o/u a perfect 0-6.
And Eveland has never started a game vs. Baltimore.
On the offensive side of things, the Orioles rank 22nd in the majors in team OBP at .319, 15th in team slugging at .398, and are averaging 4.2 RPG. Meanwhile, the A’s rank 8th in OBP at .340, 24th in slugging at .366, and are averaging 4.8 RPG.
Over its last five games, the Baltimore bullpen has allowed six ER and 26 baserunners over 13 2/3 IP. On the other side, the Oakland pen has given up three ER and just 10 baserunners over its last five games, covering 14 2/3 innings of work.
The o/u is 10-21 in Orioles games this season, which are averaging 8.7 total runs per, while the totals are 12-18 in A’s games, which are averaging 8.5 runs. Also, the totals are 6-10 in games played at McAfee Coliseum this season, which are averaging 7.6 total runs per, which ranks 6th-lowest among all ML ballparks. Last year, McAfee games averaged 8.4 total runs, which ranked 4th-lowest in the league.
Zman’s Pick: We like the Under here.