MLB Baseball
2011-05-09 - Oakland As at Texas Rangers
A Sports Betting Pick by Goober
Baseball: United States: MLB 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011 - First Pitch 8:05 PM ET
Oakland travels to Texas Monday after taking 3 of 4 games from the Rangers last week in Oakland. Oakland and Texas are both 18-17 on the year and 2 games behind the LA Angels in the AL West.
The A's are coming off a weekend series in Kansas City that saw them win 2 of 3. Oakland is now 10-9 on the road this season.
The Rangers are still in a slump, losing 2 of 3 at home to the Yankees this weekend. The Rangers home record has now dropped to 12-7 after winning their first 7 home games.
The series starts with a great pitching matchup on Monday night. Trevor Cahill will start for the A's against CJ Wilson for the Rangers.
Cahill is now 5-0 on the season with an ERA of 1.79. Cahill pitched 7 scoreless innings against the Rangers last week in Oakland, moving his career mark to 7-2 against Texas with a 2.27 ERA. Cahill has now made 7 starts on the year and only allowed more than 1 run once!
Cahill will get to face a depleted Rangers lineup that will once again be without Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz.
The Rangers will be hoping CJ Wilson can turn around their recent slump. He managed a complete game in last start in Seattle last week, only allowing 1 run. He was the losing pitcher when Cahill beat the Rangers on April 29, but he did not pitch poorly allowing only 2 earned runs in 7 innings.
Wilson is now 4-1 with a 2.92 ERA for the year and 3-0 with a 3.04 ERA at home. Wilson was 11-3 at home in 2010 so he has done some of his best work at home.
It would be difficult to pick a winner in this game. The Rangers offense is struggling, but it is still better than the full strength A's offense. The A's would be the better value for sure at current odds, but I will have to pass on that for a better option.
I think both pitchers are set up to continue their success in this game and so I will take UNDER 8.5 runs to be scored in this game.
The Pick :
Oakland 3, Texas 2
