A quick rematch between playoff hopefuls is part of Tuesday’s sports betting calendar when the San Diego Padres open up a short series in Oakland against the Athletics.
Tuesday, August 3, 2021 – 9:40 PM EDT at Oakland Coliseum
San Diego reaches the Bay Area a full 7-games behind the San Francisco Giants in the NL West race, and in third place behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Padres, however, still have a tight grip on the second wild card slot in the National League with the Cincinnati Reds 4-games back. Oakland trails the Houston Astros by 4½ in the AL West, and the Athletics also have a cushion for the second wild card slot in the American League with a 3-game lead over the disappointing New York Yankees.
The Tuesday series opener failed to make the overnight boards at the best online betting sites due to the A’s not officially announcing their starting pitcher. Expectations are it will be Sean Manaea (8-6, 3.01), with the Padres sending Blake Snell (4-4, 5.44) out in what would be a rematch of a contest in San Diego last week.
Oakland pounded its way to a 10-4 triumph when Snell and Manaea went head-to-head last week, an easy win for bettors holding +120 tickets at Intertops (visit our Intertops Review) on the Athletics. Manaea worked six shutout innings for the win, allowing just one hit while whiffing nine. Three of San Diego’s runs came in the ninth with the outcome already decided. The A’s jumped on Snell for four runs in the first, and scored seven times against him before Padres skipper Jayce Tingler finally made the call to his bullpen in the fifth.
Snell’s poor showing in that start ended a string of four consecutive assignments that went into San Diego’s win column. It also was the third time since late-May that he allowed seven runs in a single outing. Snell was facing the A’s for the first time since 2018, and has enjoyed some decent success at the Oakland Coliseum over the years with a 1-0 record and 2.75 ERA across three career starts.
Manaea took a perfect game into the sixth against San Diego a week ago, and Oakland picked up the dubya for the third-straight time with their southpaw on the bump. The current string of wins was preceded by four consecutive losses by Manaea, his ERA during that stretch at 3.91. In three career starts against the Padres, the 29-year-old is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA, and Manaea is 4-2 with a 3.64 ERA in 11 home starts this campaign.
San Diego will be without Fernando Tatis Jr. for this series after the star shortstop was placed on the injured list with a shoulder injury over the weekend. The Padres tried Jake Cronenworth at short in place of Tatis in one of the games with the Colorado Rockies, and rookie Ha-Seong Kim in another.
Despite not having Tatis in the lineup, both contests against the Rockies without him went ‘over’ the MLB betting odds at what is generally regards as pitcher-friendly Petco Park. San Diego games have been trending that direction with six of the last seven skipping past the totals, and standing 58-49-1 O/U/P on the season.
Oakland is returning home following a 10-game road trip up-&-down the Pacific Coast. The Athletics split the journey 5-5, dropping three of four in Seattle, going 1-1 in San Diego and then winning three of four in Anaheim. Three successive games against the Angels ended in shutouts, two of those going into Oakland’s win column.
Last week’s series at Petco Park was resulted in a split, the Padres winning a 7-4 final a day before Snell and Manaea met. San Diego took two of the three games at the Oakland Coliseum a season ago, both of those wins staying ‘under’ the totals while the lone win by the Athletics in the set hopped the mark.
Four of the last six played in Oakland fell short of the scoreboard targets, along with one push. The weatherman is telling us to expect mostly clear skies and the thermometer in the mid-60s at game time. There is also a 5-10 mph WNW breeze (3B to RF foul pole) in the forecast. My forecast is for the total to run 8-8½, leading me to a free MLB pick on the ‘under’ in the series opener.
MLB Pick: Under 8½ (-110) at Bovada (visit our Bovada Review)