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The New York Yankees took game one by a score of 7-2 over the Oakland Athletics. It's time to continue our MLB odds series with an Athletics-Yankees prediction, pick, and how to watch.
The Athletics were coming off their first series win of the year before facing the Yankees last night. The Athletics are hoping to find a way to win. Currently, they are on pace to lose 126 games, which would be the most in the modern era. The offense is struggling and pitching has not been helping much either. The Yankees are just hoping to get out of the basement of the AL East. They are currently 19-17 on the season but are ten games back of Tampa Bay, but just two behind the fourth-place Red Sox for the last wild card spot.
Here are the Athletics-Yankees MLB odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
MLB Odds: Athletics-Yankees Odds
Oakland Athletics: +1.5 (+102)
New York Yankees: -1.5 (-122)
Over: 8.5 (-122)
Under: 8.5 (+100)
How To Watch Athletics vs. Yankees
TV: NBC Sports California, Yes Network
Stream: MLB.TV
Time: 7:05 PM ET/4:05 PM PT
*Watch MLB games LIVE with fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Why The Athletics Could Cover The Spread
Oakland is sitting 25th in the league in batting average, actually tied with the Yankees, but they do have a .311 on-base percentage. If they are going to be hitting so poorly, they have to make up for it by hitting home runs. Two teams are tied with the Athletics in terms of team batting average, the Yankees and the Dodgers. The Yankees have hit 46 home runs, while the Dodgers have hit 58. As a result, both teams are scoring more and winning more.
The big issue has been their everyday players. Brent Rooker has been the best of the group, hitting .319. He has been a stud for the A's this year. The 28-year-old has hit ten home runs, and 26 RBIs while leading the majors in OPS. He is also doing it with runners on, in RISP situations he is hitting .304 with 18 RBIs on the season. He is a reason for optimism for the A's. Past that, there is not a lot of good. Out of the only four players who would qualify for the league leaderboard, two of them have negative WAR values. Tony Kemp is hitting just .190, while Shea Langeliers is hitting .208. Rooker has been by far the most productive member of the lineup and will have to keep putting up superstar numbers to keep the A's in games.
Starting for Oakland will be Drew Rucinski. He is currently 0-2 with a 7.71 ERa on the season. In his two starts, he has given up five runs in each, including a home run. He has also only struck out four in those two starts. He is a flyball pitcher, so he will need to be wary of the short porch at Yankee Stadium.
Why The Yankees Could Cover The Spread
The Yankees are not hitting for average, but are winning due to two reasons. First, they hit home runs. They are seventh in the majors in home runs this year. The second has been pitching. While the A's have a team ERA of 7.26, the Yankees are seventh in the league at 3.56. Mike Schmidt will look to improve on that number today. He has probably been the weakest of the bunch of starters for the Yankees. Schmidt currently is 0-3 on the season with a 5.83 ERA. He has given up two or more runs in every start, although he does have two starts in which he gave up only unearned runs in. Schmidt is also struggling with home runs, giving up a homer in all but one start this year. The one start was his most recent, which is on a positive note.
DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Rizzo are stepping up in the absence of Judge and Stanton. LeMahieu has 16 RBIS and four home runs on the season thus far. He has a hit in every game of May and is hitting .370 with an OBP of .414 on the month. He has also driven in five runs. Rizzo is going almost as well. He has hit in six straight games and has a .333 average in May. He also carries a .438 OBP in the month and has been limiting the strikeouts.
Final Athletics-Yankees Prediction & Pick
The Athletics just cannot score, and with the Yankees facing a pitcher such as Rucinski, they should score plenty. Last night, Aaron Hicks broke out of his slump and will look to keep rolling. This should be a higher-scoring game, but the Yankees should win with ease.
Final Athletics-Yankees Prediction & Pick: Yankees -1.5 (-122), Over 8.5 (-122)