A's at Indians

I do not know what to say. I guess it is my time for a string of bad luck to go my way. The Pirates starter admitted he never was able to get loose last night so he goes out anyway and hurt us in the long run by only pitching to two batters and then coming out. Well I guess this is the way it goes in my world. Investing in general is tough but investing in sports is even tougher. Well I am 1-3 the past 4 days being down 2.15 units is not how I wanted it. So today I have found a game that should get us a win. I really feel that this is a solid play and I will break down why I like the A’s ML -105 tonight against the Indians.
The A’s are going to send Gio Gonzalez to the mound tonight against the Indians who are sending Fausto Carmona to the mound. Gio Gonzalez comes into this game on fire as of late. He has an ERA of 1.35 and a WHIP of 1.00 his last 3 games. His record in those games is 1-1 and his team is 2-1. He has pitched a total of 20 innings in those 3 games and has only allowed a total of 3 earned runs to go along with 9 hits only. He has done all this against some of the best offenses in MLB (Twins, Texas and Toronto). I dug into his stats against the Indians and this guy is outstanding against them. His team is 4-0 and he has pitched a total of 23 1/3 innings in those 4 games allowing only 3 earned runs. I look at how Fausto Carmona is doing and I see he is 0-3 in his last 3 starts with an ERA of 6.87 and a WHIP of 1.64. This guy has gotten hit very hard as of late. He has given up 5 or more runs in 3 of his last 5 games. I decided I have to see how he pitched against Oakland in previous games. I see that in his last 5 outings his team is 2-3 and he has pitched 29 1/3 innings against them allowing 15 earned runs in those games. So I took a look at how the bullpens for these two teams have done so far. I see that Oakland’s bullpen has an ERA of 3.47 and a WHIP of 1.30 on the season. The Indians bullpen has an ERA of 3.80 and a WHIP of 1.39 on the season.
I took a look at how the hitting of these two teams has been so far and I see that the A’s are averaging 4.0 runs per game their last 5 games. The downside for the A’s though is they have struggled to hit on the road as of late. They are only averaging 2 runs per game their last 5 road games. The Indians on the other hand are averaging only 3.4 runs per game their last 5 games and only averaging 3.8 runs per game their last 5 home games. I did not feel that gave us enough info on this game so I decided to look at how they have done against each other this season. These two teams have played 6 games so far this season and I see the A’s have averaged 5.3 runs per game in those 6 games. The Indians have only averaged 2 runs per game in those 6 games. The Indians have actually been shutout in 3 of those 6 games. They seem to have problems with the A’s pitching. So what I did was took a look at how the bullpens have done against these teams hitters. The A’s bullpen has pitched 15 innings against the Indians this year and has given up 6 earned runs. The funny thing though is that 5 of the earned runs came off of two pitchers who are no longer with the A’s. The Indians bullpen has pitched 18.1 innings against the A’s this year allowing 6 earned runs.
I always say I like to look at some trends and situations that teams are in for the game I am investing in. The A’s are 6-1 in their last 7 starts against a starter with a WHIP greater than 1.30. The A’s are 4-1 in their last 5 games as a road favorite. The A’s are 11-1 in Gonzalez’s last 12 starts as a favorite. The A’s are 6-1 in Gonzalez’s last 7 starts against a team with a losing record. The Indians are 9-20 in their last 29 home games against a left-handed starter. The Indians are 3-7 in their last 10 as a home underdog. The Indians are 1-5 in their last 6 against a team with a losing record. The Indians are 5-15 in their last 20 games following a day off.
I look at how hot Gio Gonzalez has been. I see that Fausto Carmona has been ice cold as of late. I took notice that the Indians have really struggled to score runs on this A’s pitching staff this season. In the situations and trends I see the A’s step it up against weaker teams while the Indians play down to teams levels. Looking at all this stuff I have to make a play on the A’s in this game. Taking a road favorite is not always the best move in baseball but the A’s have showed as of late why they are road favorites by posting that mark of 4-1 in those last 5 road games as a favorite. I will play 1 unit on the A’s ML today.