Baseball Betting Bonanza with the Texas Rangers VS Oakland Athletics

It’s funny how the Oakland Athletics and Texas Rangers played a game of role reversal in the beginning of their four-game series Monday. Texas leads the major leagues with 303 runs while Oakland on the other hand is last in the American League with 185. So it was the Athletics who hung a 12-1 beating on the Rangers and they will try to keep the offensive juggernaut going Tuesday. Oakland had scored only 21 runs in losing 10 of its previous 11 games, with nine of the runs coming in the only victory. Tuesday’s output was a season high.

Oakland will go against Texas’ Derek Holland, who allowed eight runs in the second inning of the Rangers’ 21-8 loss to Seattle on Wednesday in his last outing. Scott Feldman departed on Monday after allowing eight runs in 1 2/3 innings. Holland has struggled in two of his last three starts as he tries to regain the form that resulted in a 16-5 season back in 2011.

Texas Ranger at Oakland Athletics
When: 10:05 PM ET, Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Where: O.co Coliseum, Oakland, California

Texas as expected, opened as -165 favorites from several online sports book sites, don’t forget to check the current odds at Sportsbook.com, the only baseball betting site online that you should bet on.

Pitching Match Up: Derek Holland (Rangers RH 4-4, 5.11 ERA) VS Travis Blackley
(Athletics LH 0-0, 0.82 ERA)

Holland was sharp two starts ago when he allowed two runs and struck out nine in 7 1/3 innings in a 14-3 victory over Toronto on May 25. Holland is 3-1 in nine games – six starts – lifetime against Oakland with a 1.91 ERA and a .212 batting average against. The Athletics’ roster is hitting .176, with only Kurt Suzuki (5-for-18, two homers, four RBIs) having any amount of success.

Blackley will make his second straight start after six relief appearances with Oakland. He allowed one run and three hits in five innings and didn’t receive a decision in his first major league start as Oakland lost 5-4 at Minnesota on Thursday. Blackley, a 29-year-old Australian, pitched in the majors in 2004 with Seattle and 2007 and 2012 with San Francisco before being claimed off waivers May 15.

Baseball betting tips to take with: • A crowd of 10,120 at O.co Coliseum watched Oakland’s Jarrod Parker carry a no-hitter into the eighth inning Monday.
• The Athletics have been shut out 11 times in 2012, including seven times in the previous 18 games before Monday.