Oakland Athletics vs Baltimore Orioles Prediction 8-18-23 MLB Picks
The Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland Athletics meet Friday in MLB action from O.co Coliseum. The Orioles are fresh off a road series versus the Padres, losing two of three games. As for Oakland, they played the Cardinals in their last set and lost two of the three installments. Check back all season long for free MLB pics at Sports Chat Place.
Baltimore Orioles
The Orioles posted a solid 4-1 win over the Padres on Monday, but then lost big in game two 10-3. In the Wednesday rubber match, Baltimore took another loss 5-2 to lose the series. Ryan Mountcastle had a solo home run in the defeat, and Adley Rutschman added two hits with a run in four at-bats.
In the starter role for the O’s on Friday it’ll be Kyle Gibson. This year over 25 starts Gibson is 11-7 with a 4.89 ERA and 121 strikeouts over 145.1 innings. Gibson is 3-1 with a 5.27 ERA in his last seven starts.
Oakland Athletics
Over on the Oakland side, they took on the Cardinals in their last series. The Athletics lost the first two games 7-5 Monday and 6-2 Tuesday, but prevented the sweep with a nice 8-0 blowout victory in the finale. Both Zack Gelof (four hits; run) and Jordan Diaz (two walks; run) had two RBI apiece during the win.
Francisco Perez will make the start for the A’s on Friday. So far in two games (zero starts) this year Perez has a 4.50 ERA and three Ks without a decision.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’m going to stay with the Orioles in this one. Baltimore has faced a pretty tricky west-coast trip so far with mixed results beyond a series win over the Mariners last weekend. The O’s will need to stop the bleeding on the mound, as they’ve given up 15 combined runs in the last two games. Gibson is coming off a very rough outing himself, with nine earned in 5.1 innings in Seattle. That said, he wasn’t pitching too badly before that with a 2-0 record, 13.0 innings and four earned in his previous pair. If Gibson can notch a quality start here, Baltimore should had a decent shot at a W.
