MLB Baseball
2013-05-21 - Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: MLB Baseball
Tuesday 21 May 2013 - First Pitch 8:05pm
1:05am (British Time)
Preview
The Oakland Athletics (24-22) took the first game of this series to level the season series with the Texas Rangers (29-16). However, they still trail the Rangers by 5.5 games in the American League West so making sure they complete a series win in this three games series will certainly be a boost, even at this early stage of the season.
Despite the loss last night, the Texas Rangers still have the best record in the Major Leagues and will certainly feel they can improve that as they send Yu Darvish to the mound.
Darvish has a 7-1 record this season with a 2.97 ERA, while he will be going for his sixth straight win on Tuesday. However, the pitcher has struggled a little bit in recent starts and he has a 4.50 ERA in his last four starts, even though he has still been supported enough to record the win in three of those games.
He also particularly struggled against the Oakland Athletics last season as he lost both starts and had an incredibly poor 6.57 ERA in those games. The Texas starting pitchers have had a hard time dealing with the Oakland bats in recent games so Ron Washington will be hopeful that Darvish can at least provide a stronger platform in this one.
There is every chance that Darvish will be able to record his first win against Oakland as the Athletics are countering with Daniel Straily going to the mound. Straily had his last start against Texas and gave up 5 runs in just over 4 innings pitched.
The pitcher is 0-2 with an 8.84 ERA in his last four starts, but he may do well to remember his only previous visit to Arlington. On that occasion, Straily allowed just one run in just under 7 innings pitched, although he wasn't involved in the decision as Oakland lost 5-4.
Head to Head
Texas took 2 of 3 games from Oakland on the road earlier this season, but the Athletics levelled the season series with the win last night.
Oakland are 7-3 in the last 10 games in the series between these American League West rivals.
The Rangers are just 2-4 in their last 6 home games against Oakland.
Prediction
Yu Darvish has not quite been getting his full command in his last four starts and has struggled against Oakland, but he definitely gives Texas the edge on the mound in this one tonight.
The Texas bats are certainly capable of getting after Daniel Straily if the pitcher's command is not quite up to par and I like the Rangers to win by a couple of runs at least.
The Pick :
Texas Rangers 6-3 Oakland Atheltics
