MLB Betting Free Picks: Oakland @ Boston

Added on Jun 03, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

Sportsbooks offering daytime baseball betting action on Thursday, and we’ll take a look at an American League game between the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s. The Red Sox were something of a disappointment in the early going, though they’re currently on a nice run and have pulled into third place in the AL East. Oakland is a bit of a surprise and are in second place in the AL West 1 game out.

Oakland A’s at Boston Red Sox
June 3, 10:35 AM Pacific

After a disappointing start to the season the Red Sox have been in solid form of late, winning 8 of their last 10 games. The A’s have won 6 of their last 10, but are simply a different team on the road than at home. At home, they’re 18-9 but have the third worst road record in the league at 10-17 -5.4 units. The Red Sox are typically overvalued at home, and that’s why despite an 18-13 record they’re still in the red at Fenway Park (-0.1 unit). They’ve made money against the A’s at home in the past few years, currently on a 9-3 +3.2 unit run.

The home/road disparity between the teams could justify a play on the Red Sox by itself, but even more significant is Boston’s performance against lefthanders. The Sox are 12-6 +5.2 units against southpaws overall and are 9-3 in this situation at home. Brett Anderson is a talented young pitcher with a 1.88 ERA in 5 starts, but that really just gives us better value here. The A’s average only 3.7 runs per game on the road, while Boston is putting up 6.3 runs per game against left handed pitching. We’ll take the home team at a reasonable price in this one.

Bet Boston (Wakefield) -125 over Oakland (Anderson)