The Arizona Diamondbacks have exceeded expectations this year and rank a solid second in the NL West. They are three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for first and four games ahead of the San Diego Padres. The Oakland Athletics haven’t been so lucky, as their MLB-worst 9-34 record suggests. Let’s dive into the betting odds for Wednesday’s Diamondbacks-Athletics action to make our MLB predictions and identify the best bet.
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Best Diamondbacks-Athletics Bet & Prediction: Arizona Keeps Rolling on Wednesday
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Oakland Athletics Odds
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook
Arizona Diamondbacks: -166 | Oakland Athletics: +140
Over 9: -115 | Under 9: -105
The Arizona Diamondbacks and Oakland Athletics won’t be sending their best to the mound on Wednesday afternoon. The D-backs will trot out RHP Ryne Nelson, who has gone 1-2 and owns a 6.20 ERA. The Athletic will trot out the similarly unimpressive RHP Luis Medina, who has gone a worse 0-2 and owns a disastrous 8.18 ERA. Medina isn’t terrible by Oakland’s standards; he ranks fourth among their nine pitchers to have started in FiveThirtyEight’s rolling game score (45.9). Nelson slots in slightly above him (47).
The advanced statistics are a bit friendlier to both Nelson and Medina. Nelson’s 5.01 xERA suggests that he has gotten unlucky; Medina’s 5.86 xERA suggests the same. But even if both pitchers have strong outings, their bullpens haven’t performed well. The D-backs own a bullpen ERA of 4.50, which ranks 26th. The Athletics own an embarrassing MLB-worst bullpen ERA of 6.79. Unsurprisingly, the A’s had allowed at least four runs in all but one of their games this month as of Tuesday afternoon.
Neither of these offenses inspires much confidence. The D-backs rank 18th in expected weighted on-base average (xwOBA) at .317 but sixth in actual wOBA, which suggests they can expect some regression. The A’s rank 28th in xwOBA at .303 but 24th in wOBA, which also points to some minor regression. The A’s have also fared poorly against righties like Nelson and own a .665 OPS against them, .084 worse than what they own against lefties. The D-backs own a solid OPS of .790 against righties.
Let’s get a little creative with this wager. Although Oakland’s offense is pretty awful, Arizona doesn’t exactly have great pitching on the mound on Wednesday. The A’s had still managed to score at least one run in all but two of their games this month as of Tuesday afternoon as well. We can get the D-backs to win and both teams to score at odds of -150 via FanDuel Sportsbook. If you’re yet to register at FanDuel, you can get a no-sweat first bet worth up to $1,000 when signing up!
Best Diamondbacks-Athletics MLB Bet: D-backs Moneyline/Both Teams to Score -150 at FanDuel
