The Texas Rangers have taken the first three games of a series against Oakland in Arlington this weekend. Can they complete the sweep over the Oakland A's when the teams meet for the series finale Sunday night?
A's vs. Rangers
Sunday Set-Up
Texas beat Oakland Thursday 7-6 as -180 favorites on the MLB
betting line. The Rangers then rallied to beat the A's Friday 4-3 giving -185.
Then Saturday Texas won 7-2 as -140
chalk. So Rangers backers must be feeling rather fearless as of late.
Also, Thursday's game played 'over' its total of 11, but the
next two games have stayed 'under' that same total.
So the Rangers, winners of 16 of their last 19 games and at
a ML-best 50-29, now lead the AL West by 6.5 games over the second-place Angels
and by 13 games over the 37-42 A's.
Sunday's Pitching
Matchup
In today's pitching matchup, Australian lefty Travis Blackley (1-2, 3.05) gets the start
Sunday (7:05 Eastern) for Oakland against Japanese import Yu Darvish (10-4,
3.57) for Texas.
Blackley is working off of three straight quality starts,
and the A's have won two of his last three starts. Last Tuesday against Seattle he
gave up two runs on five hits in seven innings of work, and just before that he
gave up one run in eight innings, albeit against the punchless Dodgers. So over
his last three starts Blackley has allowed five earned runs on 13 hits in 21
innings.
However, in his one start this year against Texas Blackley got
bopped for five runs in less than five innings.
On the season Blackley has allowed 40 hits in 46 innings and
owns a very respectable 28/11 K/BB ratio.
Darvish, meanwhile, is (by our strict standards) just
seven-for-15 on quality starts this year, but the Rangers have won 11 of his
starts. Most recently Darvish gave up four runs in seven innings against the Tigers
last Tuesday, walking one and whiffing 10 in a 7-5 Texas victory. And over his
last three starts he's allowed eight ER in 23 innings.
Darvish is 1-1 against the A's this year. In his first start against Oakland he gave up one ER in 7 2/3 innings, but in the second start the A's
got him for six runs in 5 1/3 innings.
For the season Darvish has given up 82 hits in 96 innings
and struck out 106, but his 50 walks have been a cause for concern. He's been
working on that, though, and has only walked six over his last 23 innings.
Sunday's A's-Rangers
Betting Odds
As of Sunday morning the best MLB odds price we could find on Texas
was the -210 at 5Dimes, while the best price on Oakland was the +208 offered at
Matchbook.
The Rangers could also played on the run line at -110 at
Matchbook.
Most of the top baseball betting outlets were lining the total on
Sunday's game at 10.5.
In early betting on Sunday's game about 65 percent of the
action on the side had come in on Texas, while play on the total leaned about
60/40 toward the 'over.'
The Rangers are now 27-14 at home this season, while the A's
are 18-23 on the road.
Coming into this series Oakland had taken four of six games
from Texas this season. Now the Rangers lead the season series five games to
four.
Also, of the five games these teams have played in Arlington
this year, three of them stayed 'under' on the totals.
A's vs. Rangers Free
MLB Pick for Sunday
Texas is once again on one of its rolls, while Oakland
appears to be leaking oil. So we'll back the Rangers Sunday. But we don't like
that big price, so we'll take a bit of a risk and play the home team giving the
run and a half on the run line.