Rangers vs. Athletics prediction and odds for Tuesday, August 8 (Fade the Pitching)

The schedule has gotten easy for the Texas Rangers and they have taken advantage. Texas beat the Oakland A’s 5-3 yesterday which was their seventh straight win and gets them to 67-46. The Rangers have a three-game lead on Houston in the AL West. Oakland is in last place at 32-81. 

The Rangers added Max Scherzer to help them pull away from Houston and today he’ll get his second chance on the mound. For the year he is 10-4 with a 4.04 ERA in 20 starts. Oakland will counter with 2-8 JP Sears who has a 4.07 ERA in 22 starts.

It’s no surprise that the Rangers are big favorites on the road, but will they keep their win-streak alive? Let’s check out the odds. 

Rangers vs. Athletics odds, run line and total

Rangers vs. Athletics prediction and pick

Scherzer wasn’t great in his first start as a Ranger. He was still okay, but Houston adding Justin Verlander is a bigger deal and was the better trade by an AL West team for a Mets pitcher. Scherzer went six innings and gave up three runs to the White Sox in a win. He did have nine strikeouts which was encouraging. 

Scherzer though still doesn’t have elite stuff at his advanced age and because of that has a FIP of 4.54. His FIP being a half run higher than his ERA along with his lowest strikeout rate in many years makes me view him as an average starting pitcher, not Max Scherzer the three-time Cy Young Award winner. I’m not sure how the young hitters in Oakland’s lineup will view him, but the Athletics have been seeing the ball well lately. 

If Scherzer isn’t a pitcher to trust, JP Sears definitely isn’t. He has a FIP of 5.15 and has allowed 25 home runs already this season. Texas has hit the fifth most homers in baseball and could add a few in Oakland today. I like the over in this one with the very low total. I think Texas keeps winning certainly, but I see more value just fading both starting pitchers. 

Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change