New York Yankees at Oakland A’s 9/5/18 Game Prediction

New York Yankees at Oakland A’s 9/5/18
Time: 10:05 PM ET
Where: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA
Listed Pitchers: Luis Severino (NY) & Mike Fiers (Oak)
TV: YES, NBCS California
Moneyline: Yankees -155/A’s +145
Over/Under: 7.5

The Yankees and A’s, both chasing down playoff berths, have split the first two games of a key three-game series out in Oakland. How are we playing Wednesday’s rubber match with our daily free MLB picks?

MLB Betting Line

Wednesday’s MLB betting odds opened New York at around -140 over the A’s, with an over/under of 8 runs. The early betting action then bumped that dime line as much as 15 cents, to around -155.

The Yanks could also be found getting around +110 giving the run and a half on the MLB run line.

Set Up

Oakland took the opener of this series Monday afternoon 6-3, but New York took Tuesday’s game 5-1. The A’s led Tuesday 1-0 through six innings, but the Yankees scored five runs over the last three frames for the win.

After rapping out 10 hits, Monday Oakland managed just two hits Tuesday.

Even with Tuesday’s victory, New York is only 4-5 over its last nine games. At 87-52 overall the Yankees trail first-place Boston by 8.5 games in the AL East, but they also lead the American League wild-card race by 4.5 games over the second-place A’s and by 10 games over third-place Seattle.

The A’s, meanwhile, are also just 4-5 over their last nine games. At 83-57 overall Oakland now trails first-place Houston by 3.5 games in the AL West but also leads the Mariners by 5.5 games in the battle for the second AL wild-card spot.

The Yanks now lead the season series with the A’s three games to two.

Wednesday’s Starters

Fiers (10-6, 3.38) by our strict standards, is only 9/26 on quality starts this season, but he’s been pretty good for his new team since coming over in that trade with Detroit a month ago. Last Friday he got clipped for five runs and three home runs in less than four innings against Seattle, but over his previous four starts, he allowed just four runs and 16 hits through 24 innings, with 28 strikeouts. On the season the Tigers, a team that’s 27 games under .500 at the moment, went 13-8 with Fiers, and the A’s are 5-0 with him. Meanwhile, unders are 13-11 when Fiers hits the hill this season.

In two starts earlier this season for Detroit against New York Fiers allowed seven earned runs and 14 hits, including three homers, through 11 1/3 innings. The Tigers split those two games.

Severino (17-6, 3.32) is 15/28 on quality starts this year, but only one for his last four. Last Friday he allowed three runs in six innings against the Tigers, and over his previous four starts, he’s allowed 11 earned runs and 23 hits through 20 2/3 innings. On the season the Yankees are 22-6 with Severino, with overs going 14-13.

In one start earlier this year against Oakland Severino allowed just one run and five hits through six innings of a 6-2 New York victory.

Fiers has actually been pitching a little better than Severino recently, but the latter has the better recent track record against Wednesday’s opponents. For our handicapping purposes here we’re calling this pitching match-up a push, which denotes value with the A’s on Wednesday’s betting line.

Wednesday’s Batting Splits

The Yanks own a .251/.328/.446 batting average/OBP/slugging percentage split against right-handed pitching this season. However, they’re still operating without Didi Gregorius (22 HR) and Aaron Judge (26 HR), who are both doing time on the DL.

The A’s own a .250/.321/.402 split against righties this year.

We’re calling the splits with the sticks a push for Wednesday, too.

The Bullpens

The New York bullpen owns a 3.17 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP this season. However, this unit is still operating without closer Aroldis Chapman, who’s also on the DL.

The Oakland pen owns a 3.30 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. However, this unit had to throw eight innings Tuesday night, and it’s thrown 49 1/3 innings over the last 10 games.

We’ll give the Yankees a short edge in the comparison of the bullpens.

Totals Report

Unders are 39-29 in games played at Oakland Coliseum this year, which are averaging just 7.9 total runs per, fifth-fewest among all ML ballparks.

Overs are 3-2 in Yanks-A’s games this season.

Free MLB Picks

New York is still short-handed, playing without a couple of big sticks. Meanwhile, we bet Fiers his last time out, and while he under-performed Oakland won anyway. We expect a bounce-back performance in this spot. We’re going with the home-dog A’s for our free MLB pick for Wednesday.