In tonight’s MLB late slate, the Los Angeles Angels once again battle the Athletics in the second matchup of a four-game AL West duel. Neither team sits .500 on the season thus far, but each are just a few games shy of that mark as they fight to move up in the division standings.
Here’s an Athletics vs. Angeles prediction and preview for the 10:05 p.m. EST contest.
Athletics vs. Angels prediction, preview
Expecting a team in flux between homes to perform on their A-game over the course of a full season might have been a bit too optimistic. Still, the Athletics have disappointed a bit through the season’s opening months as they sit 22-26, good for fourth place among the AL West. They’re batting .251 as a team, the 10th-best mark in the MLB, and while their OBP isn’t great, they still fall 11th in team OPS at .724.
Shortstop Jacob Wilson’s .343 AVG sets him squarely second among all AL batters, while Miguel Andujar’s .313 mark makes him the Athletics’ second-leading hitter. Tyler Soderstrom and Luis Urias are both hitting .265 or better, while Lawrence Butler boasts 10 homers, though he’s not reaching base particularly often.
In the opposite dugout are the Angels. The team enters this outing with a bottom-three team batting average and the worst OBP in baseball at a paltry .281. Bright spots are few and far between for this 21-25 offense, especially with just four batters above a .220 AVG or .300 OBP (one of whom has just 29 at-bats). Zach Neto and Nolan Shanuel are hitting .282 and .277, so at least the Halos have that to hang their hats on.
Simply put, the offense looks really ugly right now. They’ll need some significant improvement if they hope to make some noise in a pretty wide-open AL West race.
Athletics vs. Angels pick, best bet
The Athletics are -175 favorites to win on the Moneyline in this contest with +114 odds on the -1.5 run line. The Angels are a +145 underdog on the Moneyline at -135 to cover, while the game total sits at a high 10.5 combined runs.
Gunnar Hoglund takes the mound for the A’s tonight. The rookie righty has seen three starts since making his debut earlier this month, posting a 3.78 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, and 15 punchouts in 16.2 innings of work. As for the Angels, veteran Kyle Hendricks gets the start with a 5.18 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 25 strikeouts in 41.2 innings this season.
This might be a bit of a contrarian pick, but I actually quite like Hoglund tonight. Sure, the sample size at the MLB level remains very limited and he only went 6.0 innings in one start with another two outings of 5.1 innings. Still, the Angels aren’t playing well and the A’s are in a prime bounce-back spot in this one. He’s set up for success, and after facing the Los Angeles Dodgers and Seattle Mariners in his last two games, tonight should feel like a breeze for the rookie. Over 17.5 outs recorded looks like a solid pick for what might end up as a breakout game.
