AL Wild Card Game: Athletics vs. Yankees Preview and Pick

AL Wild Card Game -- Win and Your In for A's and Yankees

The Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees collide in the AL Wild Card game. The winner moving on to face the Boston Red Sox in the ALDS and the loser going home.

Wednesday, October 3 at 8:00 PM ET

Yankee Stadium

Drizzle 61°F

Wind: 6mph and blowing In

Odds: Yankees are -178-moneyline favorites. The total is 8.5 Under -120.

Hendricks to throw one or two innings 

Liam Hendricks (0-1, 4.13 ERA, 1.46 WHIP) made 25 appearances (eight starts) for the A's this season. He's expected to pitch an inning or two on Wednesday. The right-hander started against the Angels last Saturday and he threw a scoreless inning, surrendering just one hit.

Hendricks went 0-1 with a 1.38 ERA and an 0.85 WHIP in his last 12 appearances (eight starts). He hasn't given up a run in his last 11 1/3 innings of work. 

The Athletics scored 813 runs (4th in the majors). They are putting up 5.02 runs per game (4th), hitting .252 (13th) with 227 home runs (3rd).

Oakland ranked 11th with a 3.81 ERA, 5th with a 1.21 WHIP and 26th with 1237 strikeouts. Their bullpen ranked 3rd with a 3.37 ERA. 

Khris Davis led the Athletics with 48 home runs and 123 RBI. Matt Olson had 29 home runs and 84 RBI. Stephen Piscotty had 27 home runs and 88 RBI.

Yankees trust in their ace Severino 

Luis Severino (19-8, 3.39 ERA, 1.14 WHIP) gave up two earned runs on four hits in his last start. He also had three walks with seven strikeouts over five innings in a 9-2 win against the Rays on September 25.

Severino had rough patches this season. He still finished with excellent strikeout (28.2 percent) and walk (5.9 percent) rates. He allowed just four earned runs over 17 2/3 innings in his last three starts. 

The Yankees scored 851 runs (2nd in the majors). They are putting up 5.25 runs per game (2nd), hitting .249 (16th) with 267 home runs (1st).

New York ranked 10th with a 3.78 ERA, 6th with a 1.24 WHIP and 2nd with 1634 strikeouts. Their bullpen ranked 4th with a 3.38 ERA. 

Giancarlo Stanton led the Yankees with 38 home runs and 100 RBI. Miguel Andujar had 27 home runs, 92 RBI and team-bests with a .297 batting average and 170 hits. Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks and Aaron Judge hit 27 home runs each.  

 



 

MLB Trends:

 

The Oakland Athletics are:

4-11 in their last 15 postseason games

1-6 in their last seven postseason road games

1-4 in the last five meetings in New York

The New York Yankees are:

4-0 in their last four games after scoring two runs or less in their previous game

6-0 in their last six games following an off day

6-0 in their last six playoff home games

39-12 in their last 51 games after allowing five runs or more in their previous game

11-4 in their last 15 games against American League West opponents

Luis Severino pitched well at hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium this season. He went 10-2 with a 2.74 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP in 15 starts. The A's don't have an ace to counter him. Liam Hendricks will open the game with Mike Fiers and Trevor Cahill to follow and the Yankees can hit them.

Fiers posted a 4.67 ERA in three starts against the Yankees this season. Cahill is just 1-4 with a 10.09 ERA in seven career appearances (six starts) against them. The New York offense is heating up at the right time and they hit 10 home runs in six games against Oakland this season.

MLB Pick: Yankees -178 at Jazz Sports

Check odds here: https://goo.gl/dVwAAb

Odds as seen on ESPN Chalk: https://goo.gl/ji6GJZ