A’s Look To Keep Lead, Rangers Look To Take It

While many sports sites and analysts are grumbling that the Oakland Athletics didn’t get enough love in the All-Star game, the A’s themselves are preparing for a game that may depend on them keeping their status as the top dog in the AL West.  The A’s were lucky to keep the top spot in their division after dropping their last game to the Kansas City Royals.  If the Texas Rangers had defeated the Houston Astros in the second game of their series, the A’s would not be No.1 anymore.

However, they are still number one in the AL West with the Rangers breathing down their necks only .5 games behind.  Today both teams find themselves in a series that is all tied up and in games that could decide who will be the leaders of the AL West this time tomorrow.

The Athletics will be entering their third game with the Royals.  This will be the last time these two teams face off this season.  Thus far this series has been defined by pitching.  In both games, both clubs starters went deep into the game with quality starts.

The Royals got their first victory of the season over Oakland on Saturday.  The A’s have been a very hot team since May especially their pitching, going 23-7 with a 3.02 ERA.

The A’s will be starting right-hander A.J. Griffin and the Royals will be starting right-hander Luis Mendoza. Griffin is 6-6 with a 3.95 ERA.  Mendoza is 2-4 with a 4.41 ERA.

The Rangers will end their series with the Astros today.  The Astros have been a throne in the side of the Rangers in this series, unexpectedly tying the series in a set of games that Texas should have dominated.

Justin Grimm will be starting for the Rangers and will be looking for his first quality start since May.  The struggling starter has posted a 9.31 ERA in his last six starts and will be looking to turn his luck around against the Astros.

The Astros will be starting Eric Bedard.  Bedard has a better ERA than Grimm (4.59) but struggled in his last outing where he walked a career-high six players in a game where he allowed the Tampa Bay Rays to dominate his team.

The Odds at Bovada have both the Rangers and the Athletics favored to win each of their respective games.    However, in baseball anything can happen.