The Oakland Athletics will continue to face off against the Tampa Bay Rays in the second game of a four-game series. These teams faced off on Monday night, and Oakland dominated early and often as they picked up a 13-2 win.
The Athletics are now 2-2 this year and are sending right-handed pitcher Adam Oller to make his MLB debut and spent half of last season in Triple A, and in eight starts, he was 4-1 with a 2.45 ERA in 44 innings.
The Rays are currently 3-1 and looking to bounce back after the loss as they will be having righty Tommy Romero also making his MLB debut here and made a start this season in Triple A and threw 3.2 shutout innings with no runs on one hit with two walks and three strikeouts but threw just 61 pitches in that outing.
Athletics at Rays Stats
Oakland Athletics Stats
The Athletics had a big offseason attempting to shed as much payroll as possible, but they are hitting the ball relatively well. They are 13th in the sport with a .730 OPS and are averaging six runs per game through their first four games of the season. A huge reason for their success so far has been their ability to hit seven home runs, which is tied for fourth in MLB picks.
They are being led offensively by first baseman Seth Brown as he is 3-for-14 with two home runs and seven RBI. Brown has not been a great April hitter as last season he had a .238 batting average with three home runs and six RBI last year. With Matt Olson gone, Oakland needs some players to step up and try to replicate the offense they lost.
Tampa Bay Rays Stats
The offense of the Tampa Bay Rays has been at a mediocre level thus far as they are 14th in baseball with a .712 OPS so far and are averaging 4.3 runs per game up to this point. The team traded away Austin Meadows in the offseason, but the team has not been able to find a power stroke as they have two homers right now as a team.
First baseman Ji-Man Choi has been their best hitter in the early stages of the year as he is 5-for-10 with no home runs and two RBI while also scoring two runs with three walks and three strikeouts. In his career against Oakland, Choi has been able to hit well as in 16 games against them, he is hitting .200 with four home runs and 11 RBI, so this should be a sign that Choi can figure out how to hit enough here.
Matchup Information
Athletics at Rays Trends
Athletics at Rays Betting Prediction
When looking at the MLB betting odds, the Tampa Bay Rays are listed at -1.5 on the run line at +105, while the Oakland Athletics +1.5 is -126 so far. On the moneyline, the Rays are -210 to win while the A’s are +176. The total is sitting at 8.5, and the over is slightly favored at -118 while the under is -104.
Conclusion
Teams are being cautious with their starting pitching as they are building up, so the bullpens are going to be the biggest difference. The Rays are seventh in the sport with a 4.84 ERA, while the Athletics are right behind them at ninth in baseball with a 4.61 ERA. With two starting pitchers making their MLB debut today, I do not see the pitchers making too much of an impact and lasting more than a couple of innings.
Rays manager Kevin Cash was able to burn Chris Mazza out of the bullpen and ate three innings instead of using a bunch of people, as well as letting Brett Phillips pitch for two innings to really save their bullpen. The defense also was a bit of an issue for Tampa as they committed two errors. This feels like a chance for the Rays to correct course after having a terrible start to the game yesterday.
All in all, go with the Tampa Bay Rays to win the game outright and the under to hit as it has been in seven of the previous eight games between these teams played inside of Tropicana Field.
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