Texas Rangers (30-48) vs. Oakland Athletics (47-33)
June 29, 2021 9:40 pm EDT
The Line: Oakland Athletics -180 / Texas Rangers +166; Over/Under: -8.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Texas Rangers and the Oakland A’s meet in an AL West division matchup in MLB action from RingCentral Coliseum on Tuesday night.
The Texas Rangers will look to build on a 4-1 win over Kansas City in their last game. Joey Gallo led the charge with a home run and two RBIs while Adolis Garcia went 2 for 4 with a triple and an RBI. Nate Lowe added a base hit as well as the Rangers had just four hits as a team in the losing effort with the rest of Texas’ lineup batting 0 for 18 with 3 strikeouts. Jordan Lyles got the win to improve to 3-5 on the year after allowing one run on seven hits while striking out four over seven innings of work. Ian Kennedy closed out the 9th for his 13th save of the season. Mike Foltynewicz will start here and is 1-7 with a 5.40 ERA and 56 strikeouts this season. In his career, Foltynewicz is 1-0 with a 1.88 ERA and 14 strikeouts against Oakland.
The Oakland A’s will look to build on their 6-2 win over San Francisco last time out. Aramis Garcia and Matt Chapman each had two hits and two RBIs while Elvis Andrus and Cole Irvin each had an RBI as well to cap off the scoring for Oakland in the win. Skye Bolt and Matt Olson each had a base hit as well to finish off Oakland’s offense in the victory. Irvin got the win on the mound to improve to 6-7 on the year after tossing eight shutout innings, giving up just three hits while striking out eight in the victory. James Kaprielian will start here and is 4-1 with a 2.86 ERA and 46 strikeouts this season. This will be Kaprielian’s second career start against Texas.
Texas is 17-42 in their last 59 series-opening games and 8-21 in their last 29 games overall while the over is 5-0-1 in their last 6 games as a road underdog. Oakland is 6-0 in their last 6 home games and 16-6 in their last 22 series-opening games while the over is 5-2 in their last 7 division games. The over is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings between these two teams in Oakland.
I get why you could make the case for the Rangers here, but one good start for Mike Foltynwicz isn’t going to change my opinion as he’s been batted around more often than not this season. James Kaprielian has had his moments, but he’s been the better pitcher with the more consistent lineup behind him and I just think that alone makes Oakland the play here.
