Boston (14-17) at Oakland (12-21)
When: Monday, May 11th, 2015
Where: O.co Coliseum, Oakland, CA
Time: 10:05 ET
TV: DirecTV 628, 698
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The Oakland A’s return home after a dreadful 10 game road trip in which they lost 7 of those 10 games and have fallen into last place in the American League West. While their offense has been OK this year, it’s their pitching and defense that has let them down. They are dead last in the majors with 33 errors committed in 33 games. Their team ERA is 4.21 although most of that has been their ineffective bullpen.
Tonight’s starter Scott Kazmir will be making his 7th start. He’s 2-1 with a 2.75 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 39 innings. Kazmir’s last outing was his worst. He allowed 6 runs in 6 innings at Minnesota and has allowed 4 home runs in his last 2 starts. He beat Boston last year in his only outing against them 4-2.
The Boston Red Sox aren’t playing the best baseball either. They have lost 7 of 9 after losing the weekend series in Toronto. They were outscored 17-7 by the Blue Jays. If you look at the stats, the Red Sox are one of the worst teams in baseball. They are hitting .233 as a team and have an ERA of 4.97. At this rate, they’ll be lucky to win 70 games.
Of their five starting pitchers, tonight’s starter Rick Porcello has the best ERA at 4.38. He was pretty good in 2 starts against Oakland last year. He only allowed 2 runs in 14 1/3 innings including a complete game shutout on July 1st.
I don’t like to take a favorite of -127 with a team that’s really bad like Oakland, but the Red Sox have a league worst .192 batting average against lefties.
Pick: A’s -127
