2nd Sept - Athletics vs Angels

The Oakland Athletics have been one of the worst teams in the American League this season. They’re not competing for a playoff place and appear to be destined to finish dead last in the AL West.

However, they are a very different proposition when ace and potential Cy Young Award contender Sonny Gray is on the mound. Gray has been pitching well recently posting a 2-2 record with a 1.60 ERA over his last six starts and he’s also looking for a fourth win in five starts against the LA Angels. The pitchers leads the AL in ERA and opponents’ batting average, but he hasn’t had much run support and his defence has allowed five unearned runs during Gray’s last three starts.

Last night, a mini three-game winning run was snapped by the visiting Angels in a 6-2 defeat. The Angels are still in pursuit of a playoff berth, but are a surprising third place in the AL West, six and a half games back from the division-leading Houston Astros and still a few games off the pace in the hunt for Wildcard places.

Wednesday night could be a good pitching match-up. Heaney has an ERA of less than two in his last five road starts and he’s only really endured one disappointing outing since moving to LA, a heavy loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on August 22. Heaney has faced the Athletics just once before during his MLB career, and never before as a member of the LA Angels.

Three Reasons for Betting Tips

1. Quality pitching

This is an intriguing pitching duel between two players that are throwing their pitches well. Heaney has more to play for in his playoff chase pursuit, but Gray has been enjoying a career season. We’re not expecting either man to budge in a match-up two streaky hitting line-ups.

2. Sonny Gray factor

The Athletics haven’t necessarily helped Gray out much this season, but they haven’t helped many of their pitchers out. There’s an extra intensity when Gray starts at the moment, a potential individual award for him is really the last thing for Oakland to play for and we expect that to make a difference in today’s matchup.

3. No hot hitters

There aren’t hitters on either side of this contest that you would back to break their team out of an offensive slump at this point. They’ve had some high-scoring games in recent weeks, but it’s difficult to see Heaney or Gray being hit too much.