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It has been a historically bad start to the season for the Oakland Athletics, who despite winning their past two games, enter this road series with the Milwaukee Brewers with a 14-50 record and are in search of their first three-game winning streak this season.
Oakland Athletics vs. Milwaukee Brewers (-225, 9.5)
The Athletics will give Luis Medina a bulk appearance with Sam Moll as the opener on Friday. Medina has allowed at least three runs in all six of his MLB pitching appearances this season with an 0-6 record and five losses of at least two runs in those appearances.
Backing up Medina is a bullpen with a 6.12 ERA, good for the worst in the league by a wide margin with no other team posting a bullpen ERA worse than 4.90.
The Athletics lineup has also had its fair share of issues, ranking 29th in the league in runs per game and 28th in batting average all while scoring three runs or fewer in 19 of their last 25 games.
Brewers starter Adrian Houser will look to keep the Athletics bats silent as he’s allowed a maximum of one run across three of his last four starts, and overall this season has done a good job of limiting big innings with two walks and 0.6 home runs per nine innings allowed.
At home, the Brewers lineup has been far better at lending run support to their starters than on the road, ranking third in the National League in home runs per game at home and nearly 4.5 runs per game, good for seventh in the National League. On the road, they rank second-to-last in runs per game in the National League.
The Oakland Athletics have lost all season long with 22 of their last 26 losses coming by multiple runs and just 11 of their 50 losses coming by one run. Friday’s series opener sets up to be taking the same route.