Baseball is back and better than ever! On Friday, the Oakland Athletics will battle things out with the Detroit Tigers! Join us for our MLB odds series, where our Athletics-Tigers prediction and pick will be revealed.

Starting off the season on the wrong foot with an overall record of 1-6, there is no doubt that the time is now for Oakland to hop back on the saddle. In the midst of the circulating news surrounding this franchise and their decision to move the team to Sacramento for the 2025-2027 seasons before ultimately ending up in Las Vegas following that, can the A's give the City of Oakland something to cheer about before they pack their bags for good? Most recently, it was the Athletics that were blanked by the Boston Red Sox in a 1-0 defeat.

On the other side of things, the undefeated Detroit Tigers are the lone team remaining in all of baseball that hasn't lost a game. While expectations weren't very high by any means for this Tigers squad heading into the 2024 season, they are more than eager to silence their critics with plenty of wins as the summer moves along. Last time out on the diamond, it was Detroit that scored a whopping five runs in the top of the tenth to down the New York Mets en route to the win. They also took down the Mets in Game 1 of the doubleheader on Thursday. The Tigers are 5-0!

Here are the MLB Odds, courtesy of FanDuel. 

MLB Odds: Athletics-Tigers Odds

Oakland Athletics: +1.5 (-114)

Moneyline: +194

Detroit Tigers: -1.5 (-105)

Moneyline: -235

Over: 7.5 (+102)

Under: (-124)

How to Watch Athletics vs. Tigers

Time: 1:10 ET/10:10 PT

TV: NBCSCA/Bally Sports Detroit

Stream: fuboTV (Click for free trial)

Why The Athletics Will Cover The Spread/Win

Without a doubt, A's owner John Fisher has been under an extreme amount of scrutiny and for good reason. At first glance, this is an organization that needs a major overhaul from the top to the bottom, and it is undetermined when exactly that will happen. All together, the Athletics time in Oakland is coming to a heartbreaking end after more than 55 years of calling “Oaktown” home.

Obviously, Oakland needs a jumpstart offensively after being shut out against Boston. Even more so, the A's have scored a total of 15 runs to begin the season and are raking a lowly .202 from the dish. At some point, Oakland will need to endure an offensive explosion in the most desperate of ways. Look no further than third-baseman J.D Davis to continue his red-hot start as he is slashing a scalding .364 batting average to go along with a pair of home runs which thus far leads the team. After being shut out in two of their last three games against the Red Sox, the biggest priority that the Athletics need to put their focus on is the bats. As long as they find themselves in favorable counts and aren't stringing together poor at-bats, then they'll have a chance to inflict some damage.

Pitching-wise, the Athletics are planning on sending out lefty J.P. Sears who went down in defeat in his first start of the season. In that outing, Sears dialed up only 3.2 innings pitched while surrendering five earned runs on six hits. Simply put, Sears will need to bounce back in a big way against a Tigers offense that has had their fair shares of struggles.

Why The Tigers Will Cover The Spread/Win

Don't look now, but the Detroit Tigers have baseball's top winning percentage heading into the second weekend of the MLB season. Yes, more than 157 games are to be played still which is an eternity of time, but the Tigers could not have asked for a better start to open up their campaign.

The biggest surprise to the Tigers and their early success has happened to come from the pitching rubber. A year ago, Detroit's arms were a middle-of-the-pack squad, but this year's squad has already shown flashes of being much more. Clearly, there is plenty of baseball to be played, but Detroit's starting pitching has given up a minuscule five runs over the span of their last three games played. Keep tabs on whether southpaw Tarik Skubal can continue the team's positive pitching momentum.

In his first start of the season, Skubal tossed six innings of scoreless baseball resulting in only allowing three hits on the day. Even more impressively was his overall command as he issued no walks in the 1-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox. In general, Detroit's bats are certainly more cold than hot at the moment, so it may solely be up to Skubal to lead his club to a spread-covering triumph over the lowly Athletics.

Final Athletics-Tigers Prediction & Pick

On paper, the Athletics need a win in the most desperate of ways while the Tigers will be presented with the ultimate opportunity to make a statement with another victory. At the end of the day, Oakland isn't to be trusted at the moment, and Detroit could be considered as the hottest team in baseball.

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Final Athletics-Tigers Prediction & Pick: Tigers -1.5 (-105)