Rangers vs Athletics prediction and odds for Wednesday, August 9 (Rooker's Gone Cold)

That makes eight in a row for the Texas Rangers after a 6-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics behind Max Scherzer last night. Now, they’ll go for the series sweep in Oakland with Jordan Montgomery on the mound against Austin Pruitt. Montgomery has made one start for Texas and is 7-9 with a 3.40 ERA overall this year in 22 total starts. Pruitt has made just five starts, but 34 appearances and is 2-6 with a 3.35 ERA.

The 68-46 Rangers are leading the NL West by three games and are 36 ahead of the last place, 32-82 Oakland Athletics who could secure a losing record today. It’s no surprise that the Rangers are big road favorites in this one.

Early in the year, Oakland actually used to be pretty effective against left-handed pitchers like they’re facing today in Montgomery. That’s because of the tear that Brent Rooker was on. Through May he had a 1.065 OPS with five home runs and 12 RBI against lefties. He actually had 11 walks to just 15 strikeouts in that stretch but since then he’s fallen off in a huge way. From June 1 until now Rooker has just one home run off a lefty, only two walks and 20 strikeouts with a lackluster .586 OPS. 

Without Rooker hitting left-handers Oakland has fallen to 28th in the MLB in team OPS against lefties and will likely get embarrassed by Montgomery today. He was good in his first start for the Rangers and while he has allowed a home run in each of his last three starts the A’s don’t have much of a home run threat with how bad Rooker has been.

The A’s also have a terrible bullpen and they’ll be looking to cover all nine innings with relievers in this afternoon game. This could get out of hand very quickly, so I love the Rangers on the run line even as a huge favorite.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change