The upstart A’s, after banging out 18 hits to take the opener of this three-game set Tuesday night, shoot for the series victory when the teams meet again at Dodger Stadium Wednesday night.
LA ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the call for the Blue Crew here against rookie righty Gunnar Hogland for the Athletics.
How are we playing this game with our free baseball betting pick?
MLB Betting Odds
Wednesday’s baseball betting market opened Los Angeles at a heavy -270 over the A’s, with an O/U of 8.5. Early betting action shaved the spread to -260.
The Dodgers could also be found at around -125, giving the run and a half on the run line.
A’s-Dodgers Betting Preview
The Athletics grabbed the opener of this series Tuesday night 11-1. The A’s took the lead for good with two runs in the top of the third inning, added four more in the fifth, and pulled away with five over the last three innings.
Sacramento won Tuesday as a +175 underdog while the game played over the total of 9.5.
With Tuesday’s win the A’s are 2-1 over their last three games. And at 22-20 overall the Athletics would be the No. 3 wild card team in the American League if the playoffs started today. Which is nice to think about.
Meanwhile, with Tuesday’s loss, Los Angeles is 4-5 over its last nine games. So, at 27-15 overall, the Dodgers now trail the Mets by a half-game in the battle for the best record in the National League.
These teams met once last season when the Dodgers took two of three games from the A’s in Oakland. Two of those games played over on the totals.
Wednesday’s Pitching Match-Up
Yamamoto is trying to bounce back from his first poor outing of the season last Thursday, when he gave up five runs – four on one swing of the bat – through five innings of a 5-3 Los Angeles loss to Arizona. But over his five starts previous to that he allowed just four runs – just one earned – and 16 hits through 30 innings, with 10 walks against 35 strikeouts.
The Dodgers are 5-3 with Yamamoto this season, with the Unders cashing in big time going 7-1.
This will be Yamamoto’s first career action against the Athletics.
Hoglund will be making his third career start since his call-up earlier this month. First, in his ML debut, he held Miami to one run through six innings of a 6-1 A’s victory. Then, last Wednesday, he held Seattle to two runs and five hits through 5 1/3 innings, although the Athletics blew that game 6-5.
So the A’s are 1-1 with Hoglund, the totals also 1-1.
This will be (obviously) Hoglund’s first career action against the Dodgers.
Splits With the Sticks
The Athletics are batting .258 against right-handed pitching this season, with a .321 team OBP and a .426
team slugging percentage. The A’s have also scored 11 runs twice in their last three games.
Los Angeles is slashing .263/.340/.446 against RH pitching. Numbers like those lead us to rank this line-up as the best in Baseball in that metric. However, LA is operating at the moment without a good stick in Teoscar Hernandez, who’s on the injured list.
The Bullpens
The Dodgers bullpen owns a 3.88 ERA this season, along with a 1.29 WHIP and a 3.27 K/BB ratio.
The A’s pen owns a 5.04 ERA, a 1.53 WHIP, and a 1.96 K/BB ratio. Numbers like those lead us to rank this unit among the worst bullpens in Baseball at the moment.
MLB Betting Trends
- The Athletics are 14-7 on the road this season and 17-16 against RH starters.
- The Dodgers are 15-4 at home and 20-9 against RH starters.
- The Dodgers are 10-6 this season against the run line when favored by -200 or more.
Totals Report
The overs are a combined 44-36 in A’s and Dodgers games this season.
The overs are 12-7 at Dodger Stadium this season.
Prop Bets
Dodgers 1B Freeman, who’s raking up a .714 slugging percentage this season, is catching +105 to hit over 1.5 total bases.
