Oakland Athletics (39-65) vs. Los Angeles Angels (43-59)
The Oakland Athletics will take a short journey to Los Angeles to face the Angels in the opening of a three-game series at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The visitors come here in good mood after displaying some solid performances early in the second half of the season. The Angels, on the other hand, continue to play in hot and cold form (mostly cold), and it seems they don’t have a chance for the postseason.
These America League West foes have met seven times this season, and the Angels lead the series 5-2. The Angels are -125 favorites in this one, while the total is set at 7 runs.
Although they lost the series to the Chicago White Sox on the road, the Oakland Athletics are actually playing their best baseball of the season in the last couple of weeks. Prior to the series with Chicago, the A’s swept one of the best teams in the MLB – Houston Astros, over a three-game series. Oakland won seven of 11 games since the second half of the campaign started.
The Athletics opened the scoring in the 2nd inning in the most recent duel with the White Sox, but it was pretty much all from the A’s on offense. Chicago responded with three runs and secured a 4-1 win in the end. Adam Oller (1-4) took a loss after allowing four runs on seven hits with six strikeouts and no walks across 6.1 innings. Ramon Laureano scored the only run of the game for the A’s and it was a solo homer.
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Frankie Montas (4-9) is getting his 20th start of the year and is hoping to continue with good outings after surrendering only three earned runs in the last three games he played. The 29-year-old right-hander carries a strong 3.18 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and a 109/28 K/BB ratio in 104.2 innings. Montas met the Angels twice this season and has a 0-1 record as he registered a 2.35 ERA over 7.2 innings.