Free Daily Lock Pick: MLB: Tampa Bay vs. Minnesota – September 12th – (100% Confidence Release)
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When the bottom of the AL West, the Oakland Athletics (45-99) first ventured into Texas this week, most expected them to get swept. Then they played on Monday, beating the first-place Houston Astros (82-63) to throw a wrench in their rivals' plans. On paper, most Oakland games have been lopsided this year. Lately, the Athletics are making teams fight a bit more. Wednesday night will be the final fight between the Astros and Athletics in 2023. Minute Maid Park will host the game at 7:10 p.m. EDT. Both clubs want to win, Houston needs to, but only one can. Let's see who it will be.
*Published before Tuesday's game
Oakland spent most of this season knowing that the playoffs weren't going to happen. Still, that hasn't stopped them from taking a game off four AL contenders lately. The Astros joined the Mariners, Blue Jays, and Rangers as victims of a (relative) Athletics surge late in the year. A 6-4 start to September has been possible through an A's offense that put up 48 runs during that stretch. For an offense that's dead last in runs per game (under 4.00 for the entire year), that's a nice run. Oakland is also one of the four worst MLB teams in batting average, OBP, slugging percentage, hard-hit rate, and strikeout rate. Base stealing, led by Esteury Ruiz's AL-best 58 swipes, is the only area in which the A's excel offensively. Of course, that alone isn't enough most of the time
Things on the mound have been just as ugly this year, although, September has been Oakland's b est pitching month through the first 10 games. An MLB-worst bullpen (by WAR) will be backing up Paul Blackburn on Wednesday. Blackburn faced Houston in July, holding them to one run over 5.1 innings in a win. Generally, he has been pitching well lately too, with a 2.56 ERA in his past seven starts. Oakland is 5-2 in those outings. Will he take down the defending champions again?
Free Daily Lock Pick: MLB: Tampa Bay vs. Minnesota – September 12th – (100% Confidence Release) Click to see the pick now