The New York Yankees are in danger of slipping into fourth place in the AL East, holding just a half game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays ahead of Wednesday's matchup against the Oakland Athletics.
New York's offense is an absolute atrocity right now, scoring just 11 runs over its last five games and ranking dead last in MLB in OPS over the last 30 days. The Yankees lost 2-1 to Oakland – who has the worst ERA in all of baseball – on Tuesday night.
The A's seem to be actively trying to lose, but they're not as big of underdogs as you'd expect in this matchup.
Domingo German (4-5, 5.10 ERA) gets the ball for the Yankees, and he's coming off two brutal starts, which while dive into in the prediction part of this article. Oakland counters with former Yankees prospect JP Sears (1-5, 4.10 ERA).
Let's dive into the odds and my best bet for Wednesday's matchup:
Yankees vs. Athletics odds, run line and total
Yankees vs. Athletics prediction and pick
Oakland is just 37-44 on the run line this season, but I'm going to take a shot on the A's covering here.
The Yankees simply cannot hit right now, so asking them to just win – not to mention by multiple runs – is a huge ask at the moment.
It's going to be even tougher when German is on the mound, as he's been shelled in his last two outings. The Yankees righty has made it through just 5.1 innings in his last two starts, allowing 17 runs (15 earned), 15 hits, four walks and two hit by pitches.
Yikes.
Those two outings have jumped German's season ERA From 3.49 to 5.10 and his season FIP from 4.36 to 5.29.
While the A's are a terrible team, I have a hard time just trusting German outright after those two outings.
Sears, on the other hand, may be finding something over his last eight starts.
The young lefty has a 2.93 ERA over that stretch, but Oakland hasn't given him the run support to win, going just 2-6 in those outings.
I still think Sears and the A's can keep this game close, as the Yankees have shown that their offense can't get it done on a nightly basis.
I'll lay the little juice on the run line here for Oakland, who could be a sneaky pick to win outright.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
