SPORTS WAGERS
Tampa Bay +132 over OAKLAND
Jeff Samardzija is good, make no mistake about that, as his 2.92 ERA and 130 K’s in 145 innings comes with full skills support. He remains a solid bet to be a legit rotation anchor in the second half but this one has nothing to do with fading Samardzija. This one is all about fading the A’s offense facing a great pitcher with a very nice take-back.
The Athletics had four hits yesterday and lost 4-2. They’ve now lost three of four since trading offense for pitching and over that span covering 36 innings Oakland scored single runs four times in 36 innings. On Saturday they defeated the Royals 8-3 but all eight runs came in one crazy inning. Prior to yesterday the A’s had faced a string of some of the worst starters in the game. Check out the pitchers they’ve faced in succession prior to yesterday: Jason Vargas, Jeremy Guthrie, Dallas Keuchel, Scott Feldman, Brett Oberholtzer, Miles Mikolas, Nick Tepesch, Jerome Williams, Scott Feldman (again), Brad Peacock, Brett Oberholtzer (again), Kevin Gausman, Wei-Yin Chen, Chris Tillman, and finally Chris Young. That’s in succession! Is it any wonder that the A’s made James Shields look like Sandy Koufax yesterday after facing that group. Well, if the A’s think Shields was tough, things get even tougher here when facing Alex Cobb. Cobb is in a groove, going 5-0 over his last six starts, allowing three earned runs or less in all six. His last two starts have been spectacular, as he has allowed one earned run in 15 innings while having a 22/2 K/BB. Cobb brings a 58% groundball rate on the year to this start and an off-the-charts 65% groundball rate over his last five starts covering 32 frames. Cobb was able to throw a gem against Oakland earlier this season on May 22, throwing 6.2 shutout innings and that’s when the A’s were seeing beach balls. Alex Cobb has sick stuff and he just might be the best pitcher in the AL right now but he’s priced like an average one. Tampa has at least a 50% chance of winning here and probably even more than that.