MLB Baseball
2012-05-23 - LA Angels at Oakland Athletics
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Wednesday 23 May 2012 - First Pitch 3:35pm ET
8:35pm (British Standard Time)
Preview
These two American League West rivals conclude their three game set after both took a game apiece in the last couple of days. The Oakland Athletics (22-22) are currently second in the standings in that Division, but the bigger surprise is the basement dwelling LA Angels (19-25) who have had a miserable start to 2012 despite their lavish off-season spending.
The Angels earned a 4-0 win last night as their pitching staff combined for an impressive 1 hitter, but it was Oakland who took game 1 with a tight 2-1 victory.
However, Oakland will need to up their game if they are win this series with Jered Weaver returning to the mound in the hope of torturing them again. Weaver is 6-1 this season with a 2.80 ERA, and he allowed just 2 runs from 7 innings pitched in his last outing against the San Diego Padres.
Weaver shut down the Oakland offense earlier this season, giving up no runs and just 5 hits in over 6 innings pitched against them and he is now 4-1 with a 1.21 ERA against them in his last six starts. With injuries on the Athletics side, as well as being the team with the lowest batting average and least runs scored, it looks another tough day could be in the offing.
The pitcher will be confident he can record another win for the season as the LA Angels are beginning to come alive at the plate as they were expected to when signing Albert Pujols in the off-season. Pujols has hit three Home Runs in his last seven games and he now has 15 RBIs in his last 16 games.
That doesn't bode that well for Jarrod Parker who is 1-2 with a 3.90 ERA, but coming off an outing where he allowed 6 runs and 4 walks without getting out of the 3rd inning in a loss to the San Francisco Giants.
Parker is only a rookie and had a 2.10 ERA in his first four starts for Oakland, but the more tape there is on the kid, the more likely batting line ups will see areas they can attempt to expose.
Head to Head
This has not been a happy series for the LA Angels so far this season, although they did improve to 3-5 against Oakland.
Oakland have now lost 3 of their last 4 home games to the Angels since beating them in 10 of their previous 12 here.
Oakland is 6-7 in day games this season, the Angels are 7-9.
Prediction
The LA Angels have just started finding better production from the plate in recent weeks and that should give them the edge in this game as the Oakland Athletics are struggling with injuries.
The Angels also have the edge on the mound and you have to think they will win this by a couple of runs at least if Jered Weaver continues pitching against Oakland as he has since the beginning of the 2011 season.
With the injuries in the batting line up, the Athletics could struggle to get anything going consistently, so the 2.15 the Angels win by a couple of runs looks promising.
The Pick :
Oakland Athletics 1-4 LA Angels
FIXED ODDS BETTING TIP :
I'll back the LA Angels - 1.5 Runs @ 2.15
