New York Yankees vs Oakland Athletics

The NY Yankees will conclude their series vs. the Oakland A's tonight and look to take three out of four. This will be the seventh game of a long 10 game road trip for the A's and they might be out of gas at this point. The issue for the A's has been an offense that has yet to score more than three runs in any of the first six on the trip, and have been outscored 33-15. The Yankees pitching has been very strong with all five starters coming in with an ERA of 3.50 or less, and the Yankees have not allowed an opponent to top four runs in their last seven games. That puts Oakland in a narrow path to find a way to come up with a win here. I will back the NY Yankees in this one.

Oakland continues to get great line value by the oddsmakers even though the Athletics have displayed some good pitching this season. They will try to go up 2-1 in this series with Joe Boyle on the mound. Boyle had two great outings in between a couple bad starts, including a 10-2 loss to Cleveland on Friday. However, the Oakland bullpen has five saves with a 2.81 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP and the relievers pitched two scoreless innings on Tuesday. Clarke Schmidt has made three career starts against the Athletics and has a 5.17 ERA and a 1.53 WHIP against them. New York has averaged only 3.13 runs its past eight games and has lost five of nine. Take the Athletics as a big dog Max Play. 

Oakland got off to a decent start this season, but now the Athletics are back to playing the way most people predicted as they have lost five of six and just got swept in a three-game series by Cleveland while scoring only seven runs. JP Sears starts for the Athletics and he has allowed 10 runs on 15 hits in 20 2/3 innings this season and he 0-3 with a 7.63 ERA in three career starts against New York. Carlos Rodon is 4-1 with a 1.17 WHIP against Oakland and the Yankees have won three of his four starts this year. The Yankees bullpen already has 12 saves with a 2.96 ERA in 2024. Oakland is 20-57 in day games the past two seasons. Take the Yankees as a Max Play.

New York is 36-16 against teams with a winning percentage below .400. Starter Clarke Schmidt has allowed three or fewer runs in seven straight starts and is backed up by a relief staff that is No. 1 in ERA (2.83) and second in WHIP. Stumbling Oakland is on a 2-11 slide and hit a new low after the Yankees shut them out with a perfect game. The offense is last in runs scored and slugging, plus 27th in on-base percentage, while the pitching is last in ERA (6.05) as well as last in bullpen ERA (5.70) and WHIP. New York has won four of the last five meetings and holds all the cards. Play New York.