Cincinnati Reds (11-15) vs. Oakland Athletics (5-22)
April 30, 2023 4:07 pm EDT
The Line: Oakland Athletics +120 / Cincinnati Reds -156; Over/Under: +8.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Cincinnati Reds and the Oakland Athletics meet Sunday in MLB action from O.co Coliseum. This will be the finale in a three-game series. The Reds took a wild win in the Friday opener, then on Saturday Cincinnati kept it up with a close victory. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.
Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati notched 16 team hits and scored three runs in both the second and seventh innings in an 11-7 win on Friday. In game two, the Reds notched a pair of runs in the top of the ninth in a 3-2 comeback win. Starter Hunter Greene had 5.0 clean innings with five hits, three walks and 10 strikeouts.
For the starter gig in the Sunday finale the Reds will send out Nick Lodolo. In his five starts so far Lodolo is 2-1 with a 6.31 ERA and 37 Ks in 25.2 innings. Lodolo is 6-8 with a 4.19 ERA in his career over 24 starts.
Oakland Athletics
Over on the A’s side, they did well on offense in the Friday game with 11 team hits but simply couldn’t dig out of the early hole. On Saturday Oakland was out-hit 9-7 but controlled the game most of the way. Kyle Muller had 5.0 innings, one earned, five hits and two walks in the start.
It’ll be Ken Waldichuk in the start for the A’s on Sunday. Over five starts this year Waldichuk is 0-2 with a 7.82 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 25.1 innings. Waldichuk has a career record of 2-4 with a 6.15 ERA in 12 starts.
The Reds are 13-6 in their last 19 Sunday games and 17-35 in their last 52 overall. Cincinnati is 4-9 in their lat 13 in game three of a series.
Meanwhile, the A’s are 0-4 in their last four Sunday games and 0-4 in the last four in game three of a series. Oakland is 5-24 in their last 29 interleague games.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I might take a stab on the A’s here. Both starters need a good bounce-back outing, though. Waldichuk put up five earned in 5.1 innings against the Angels in his last outing but he had a clean start versus the Cubs before that. As for Lodolo, he’s given up 14 earned runs on 21 hits and three walks over his last 8.2 innings. On Saturday the A’s endured a rough outing from Jeurys Familia in the blown save but they also couldn’t score after the second inning. I still like Oakland to recover in the finale and prevent the sweep, though.
