American League: Athletics vs Guardians Betting Preview 

We start our Athletics vs Guardians betting preview with a look at the opening odds. The Guardians have opened as a -217 consensus home favorite with Aaron Civale (2-2, 2.67) getting the ball in game one. His mound opponent is Luis Medina (1-5, 7.53) for Oakland.

Early action has seen small amounts of Guardian money, but betting is early. The Money Line is hovering around (+/-)185/215 while the total sits comfortably at 8.5 (-115/105) in addition to both the Athletics (+1.5) and Guardians (-1.5) opening at -110 each way on the run-line. We continue our Athletics vs Guardians betting preview with a deeper look at both MLB teams from a betting perspective.

Athletics Settling Back to Bottom

After losing five straight games, the Oakland Athletics aren’t the worst team in baseball, but it seems like they’re trending back to the bottom. On a side note, it’s incredible that unlike Oakland, the Kansas City Royals (18-51) aren’t trying to lose because they’re moving to Las Vegas.

The A’s were swept by the Philadelphia Phillies this past weekend to run their losing streak to five games. To be fair, three of those defeats were by one run. MLB player stats shows that Athletics starter, Luis Medina has also had his troubles over his last five starts.

The righty has given up 20 earned runs in his last 22.1 innings (8.06 era). It’s not that Medina doesn’t have decent stuff (37K, 39.1 innings), but it’s difficult to put together a streak of wins when Oakland has given the 24-year-old an average of two runs per game and has never given him a lead to work with. Let’s turn our Athletics vs Guardians betting preview attention to Cleveland.

Guardians Still in Division Race; Five Games Under .500

Cleveland is just 16-17 at home with a run differential of -28 (t-22nd), to go with a current 4-10 record following a win. Through all of that, the AL Central MLB divisional standings show the Guardians are just 2.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins (35-35) in the American League Central.

Starter Aaron Civale fell to 2-2, Wednesday, against the San Diego Padres after allowing two runs on five hits and four walks in just 3.2 innings. Like Medina, the Guardians haven’t given the former Northeastern Husky many runs to work with, averaging just 3.07 runs per game. That number is misleading because Cleveland scored 10 runs against the Red Sox in his fourth appearance.

Other than that, the Guardians have given Civale just five total runs in his four other starts. Civale has just one quality start this season, but only once did he allow more than two earned runs. We conclude our Athletics vs Guardians betting preview with our official stance on how we’re going to bet on this series.

A’s Still Giving Bettors 100%

Owner John Fisher may have the glitter of the Las Vegas Strip in his eyes, but his team who still plays in Oakland for now has been giving bettors an honest effort. For a team with just 19 wins, they are a much better 33-41 against the run line.

Now, we’re not suggesting for one minute that you’re going to make a living betting on the Athletics, but we do think there will be a point in this series where you can grab Oakland on the run-line, and there may be no better time than in game one. Cleveland is coming off a 6-game Western swing against the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondback, dropping four of the six games. Oakland likely got settled in Cleveland before the Guardians after their series in Philadelphia.

At some point, we suggest you’ll be able to catch Cleveland napping, and usually, there’s no better time than game one. With both pitchers used to low run production, we anticipate that the run line will give our bankroll a massive advantage. Take the Athletics and the run line in game one. That does it for our Athletics vs Guardians betting preview, we wish you nothing but winners this week.

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