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After taking the first two games of this series, the Oakland A's shoot for a sweep of the Red Sox Thursday night in Beantown. Former Angel Garrett Richards, no stranger to the A's, gets the call for Boston here against lefty Sean Manaea for Oakland. Who do we like here for our <a class="advblue" href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/free-mlb-picks&quot; title="Feee MLB Baseball Picks">free MLB pick</a>?
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<h2>
A's-Red Sox MLB Betting Odds<br />
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Thursday's <a class="advblue" href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/odds&quot; title="Compare MLB betting Odds">baseball betting odds</a> opened Boston and Richards at around -110 over Oakland and Manaea, with an over/under of nine runs. Both those numbers were holding steady in the early betting action.
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A's-Red Sox MLB Betting Preview<br />
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Oakland took the opener of this series Tuesday night 3-2, then won Wednesday 4-1. The A's cashed in as +110 dogs on the baseball betting line Tuesday, then at +135 Wednesday. Also, both those games played under their totals of 8.5 and 9.5, with Boston bats going cold. Last weekend Oakland took two of three games from Tampa Bay. Going back a bit further, the A's are 7-3 over their last ten games. At 23-15 overall, Oakland leads the AL West by 2.5 games over second-place Houston. The Red Sox, meanwhile, have followed up a four-game winning streak with a three-game losing skid. At 22-16 overall, Boston now leads the AL East by one game over the second-place Yankees. This series is the first meeting between these teams since 2019 when the Sox took the season series from the A's four games to three.
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Thursday's Pitching Match-Up<br />
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<a href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/pitcherlog/40209&quot; title="Garrett Richards Pitching Logs">Richards</a> is just 1/7 on quality starts this season, but he's been better lately. Last Saturday, he gave up four runs and eight hits over seven innings, pitching somewhat situation-ally in an 11-6 Sox win. And over his last three starts, he's only allowed six runs and 19 hits through 19 innings, with two walks and 22 strikeouts. Boston is 3-4 with Richards this season, and that sounds about right. Richards is no stranger to the A's after pitching most of the last ten years for the Angels. Most recently, Richards faced Oakland last season while with San Diego, allowing three runs through seven innings, with nine strikeouts, in a 5-3 Padres victory. <a href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/pitcherlog/79524&quot; title="Sean Manaea Pitching Logs">Manaea</a> is a solid 4/7 on quality starts this season. Last Friday, he held Tampa Bay to one run and two hits through 7 1/3 innings, with ten strikeouts, in a 2-1 A's win. And over his last six starts, he's allowed just nine runs through 36 1/3 innings. Oakland is 6-1 with Manaea this season and 6-0 over his last six starts! Manaea last faced Boston back in 2018, when over two starts, he first threw a no-hitter on April 21, then three weeks later gave up three runs through six innings.
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<h2>
Splits With the Sticks<br />
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Oakland is batting just .207 against right-handed pitching this season, with a .299 team OBP and a .355 team slugging percentage. Numbers like those cause us to rank this lineup among the bottom half-dozen in Baseball in this split.
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Boston is batting .271/.333/.426 against left-handed pitching this season. But the Sox have also only scored a total of eight runs over their last four games.
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<p><section></p>
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<span style="font-size:16px;"><b><span style="color:#008000;">Get more details:</span></b> <a class="advblue" href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/matchup/1356106">OAK/BOS 5/13/21 Matchup Stats</a></span>
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<h2>
The Bullpens<br />
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The Oakland bullpen owns a 3.75 ERA this season, along with a 1.26 WHIP and a 2.40 K/BB ratio. The Boston pen owns a 3.84 ERA, a 1.29 WHIP, and a 2.78 K/BB ratio.
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MLB Betting Trends<br />
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Oakland is 10-4 on the road this season.
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Boston is 10-11 at home this season.
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Oakland is 12-9 vs. right-handed starters this season.
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Boston is 8-3 vs. left-handed starters this season.
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Totals Report<br />
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Unders are 19-18 in A's games this season.
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Unders are 20-18 in Sox games this season.
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Overs are 12-9 in games played at Fenway Park this season.
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