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The Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox square off on Thursday with first pitch set for 1:35 p.m. ET. The game takes place at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. Paul Blackburn will throw the for the Athletics with Rich Hill on the mound for the Red Sox.
Oakland (21-43) lost three games in a row heading into Thursday afternoon’s matchup. Blackburn is putting together a fantastic season through 12 starts with a 2.31 ERA, coming off an outing where he threw 8 scoreless innings last week in a loss to the Cleveland Guardians. Hitting has been a season-long struggle for the A’s with the worst on-base percentage in the league (.275), and Seth Brown leads the team with 8 home runs and 31 RBIs.
Boston (34-29) will go for the sweep and its fourth consecutive win in this game. The 42-year-old Hill is in his third stint with the Red Sox and has a 4.38 ERA over 11 starts this season. The Red Sox rank eighth in runs per game (4.8), and Rafeal Devers homered in four consecutive games with multiple RBIs in every contest during that stretch.
Athletics vs. Red Sox
Pitchers: Paul Blackburn vs. Rich Hill
First pitch: 1:35 p.m. ET
Athletics local broadcast: NBC Sports California
Red Sox local broadcast: NESN
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)
Odds, picks & predictions
Run line: Red Sox -1.5 (+125)
Run total: 9.5
Moneyline odds: Red Sox -155, Athletics +135
Moneyline pick: Athletics +135
Oakland has the pitching advantage in this matchup, and you will get a decent payout if the Athletics can avoid a sweep on Thursday afternoon. It is tough to be all that confident in an Oakland offense that scored just 1 run in both of the first two games of this series, but Blackburn should put the team in position to get a win.
Player prop pick: Paul Blackburn Under 3.5 strikeouts (+110)
Oakland’s starter threw eight innings in his last start but recorded just three strikeouts, which is not exactly out of the norm for him. Blackburn failed to throw more than 3.5 K’s in six starts in 2022 and will go in with a 6.4 K/9. The Red Sox average the ninth-fewest strikeouts per game (8.0).
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