If you had a busy weekend then you might have missed it but the Oakland Athletics actually won a game. It was on Friday against the Rangers, their fourth of the season and they followed that up with back-to-back losses by a combined score of 23-5. Now, the A’s who could soon be the Las Vegas A’s head to Anaheim for a four-game series in the AL West with the LA Angels.
Tonight, in Game 1, the A’s turn to Ken Waldichuk to make his fifth start of the season and the Angels hand the ball to Jose Suarez for the fourth time this year. Waldichuk has a 7.65 ERA and a record of 0-2 while Suarez is 0-1 with a 9.26 ERA.
The A’s are underdogs tonight and might be in every game the rest of the season. Nonetheless, let’s take a look at the odds for this matchup.
Athletics vs. Angels odds, run line and total
Athletics vs. Angels prediction and pick
It’s two left-handers who are really struggling to start the season, but Waldichuk has a FIP of 7.93 and a career ERA of 5.93, while Suarez has some track record of success and a 6.16 FIP that could point to some positive regression. I expect Suarez to have a better outing, mainly because of the lineup he’s facing.
The A’s are 17th in the MLB in OPS against left-handers which is great compared to 27th vs. righties. However, the Angels are fourth in baseball in OPS vs. lefties with an .813 mark. That is due in no small part to Mike Trout who has a 1.319 OPS and five extra base hits over the past week and a nice .981 OPS facing left-handed pitching this season. Trout can carry this lineup, but he doesn’t have to because Shohei Ohtani has a .919 OPS facing lefties with two homers in 21 at-bats.
Waldichuk’s longest outing this season was 6.1 and last time out he went five scoreless, but no matter when he turns the ball over to the bullpen they’ll make a mess of things. Oakland’s bullpen has a league worst 6.99 ERA with 63 walks to 67 strikeouts. Just fade the A’s until they move to Vegas.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change
