The Oakland A’s have had plenty of success against Madison Bumgarner and they look to continue that run when the Northern California rivals meet Saturday in the middle game of the Bay Bridge interleague series.
ODDS ANALYSIS
The Giants have been a streaky team all season. When playing well, they’re really, really good. When doing poorly, they’re just awful. Right now the Giants are really good. They’ve won eight of their last nine games following two straight wins in San Diego to keep the pressure on the first place Dodgers in the NL West. But as well as the Giants are going now, that can all change in a hurry. Remember this is a team that has four losing streaks of five games or more this season and had just lost eight of nine before going on their current run. They return home for the first time since the All-Star break after a three-game sweep of the lowly Phillies moved their record at ATT Park to 25-22, leaving them in the red 3.67 units. The shoe fell on the Athletics with the trade of starter Scott Kazmir on Thursday, breaking up one of the best starting rotations in baseball. Though they’ve been at the bottom of the AL West standings most of the season, the A’s are competitive on the road, entering the series with a 23-24 record away from O.co Coliseum and they’ve won three of four from the Giants in each of the past two seasons.
PITCHING MATCHUP
The A’s rotation is in flux with Jesse Hahn on the disabled list and Scott Kazmir shipped to Houston. Righty Chris Bassitt (0-2, 2.93 ERA) is in line to take Hahn’s spot in the rotation. He last pitched before the All-Star break, starting in place of Hahn at Cleveland on July 11 going 6.1 innings. He’s made three starts this year posting a 2.65 ERA over 17 innings and had five relief appearances. He’ll face the Giants for the first time.
Madison Bumgarner (10-5, 3.27 ERA) allowed just one run on four hits at Arizona on Sunday to get his 10th win of the season, but an elevated pitch count forced him out after five innings. He needed 93 pitches to record 15 outs and had to rely on his bullpen for the win. The Giants ace has worked less than six innings in each of his last three starts posting a 5.17 ERA in that span.
Bumgarner is 1-2 with a 6.41 ERA in three lifetime starts against the A’s and owns a 5-6 record with a 4.11 ERA in 13 career interleague starts.
QUOTE TO NOTE
“I think we had to be realistic where we were as a club. How we came out after the All-Star break was important. We were 3-2 but unfortunately still dropping a couple games with the way the Angels were playing. With the deadline looming and the market probably soon to be ripe with a lot of opportunities, we thought this was the proper time.” – Oakland GM Billy Beane on the Thursday trade of pitcher Scott Kazmir.
LIVE BETTING or SITUATIONAL BETTING
The Giants are one of the best offensive teams in the majors, but they’ve been particularly impressive of late. San Francisco is fourth in the majors with a .271 average, but is hitting .331 with 11 home runs and averaging 6.8 runs over the last nine games. The Giants connected for three homers in Tuesday’s 9-3 win at San Diego and followed with two more Wednesday in a 7-1 win, their eighth in the last nine games. San Francisco’s team average falls to .266 in games at ATT Park and the run production drops to 3.7 per game. And that’s after the Giants scored 27 runs in a three-game sweep of Philadelphia the last time they played a home series.
PROP TALK
Buster Posey is putting together an MVP-type season and a good series against the Athletics may just carry him to a big second half. Posey closed the first half of the season on an 8 for 13 tear in three games against the Phillies and continued his torrid hitting after the All-Star break, hitting .381 in five post-break games, extending his hitting streak to eight straight. However, it’s been a struggle for Posey against the cross-bay rival Athletics. He hits just .176 in 68 career at-bats against Oakland, but six of his 12 hits have been for extra bases, including three doubles, a triple and two homers.
ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION
The A’s raised the white flag on the season Thursday by dealing Scott Kazmir and the club is officially open for business. Several other prominent Oakland players have been mentioned in the rumor mill, including: Ben Zobrist, Tyler Clippard, Sam Fuld, Jesse Chavez and Josh Reddick. The A’s will be a different looking team in the next few days and not for the better. But that doesn’t stop them from beating up on their Bay Area rival. Too often overlooked by local media, the A’s get a seat at the grown-up table following Saturday’s win.
Oakland 5, San Francisco 4
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