San Francisco Giants at Oakland Athletics Predictions, Odds & Picks (September 19)

• The “even year” Giants looking to sneak into playoffs
• Oakland gearing up for postseason run
• Expect some runs on Saturday

Giants at Athletics Odds

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Giants at Athletics Predictions and Picks

Betting record through 9/18/20 (32-26-1)

Trends (Going into Friday)

• Giants are 7-0 in last seven interleague games

• Giants are 6-1 in last seven Saturday games

• Giants are 8-2 in last 10 games vs. starter with a WHIP over 1.30

• Giants are 7-3 in last 10 overall

• Giants are 0-4 in last four games as an underdog

• Giants are 0-4 in last four interleague games vs. team with a winning record

• Over is 11-1 in Giants last 12 interleague games vs. right-handed starter

• Over is 24-6-1 in Giants last 31 interleague games

• Over is 16-4-1 in Giants last 21 games vs. AL West

• Over is 9-3-1 in last 13 meetings in Oakland

• Over is 4-1 in Giants last five interleague road games vs. team with a winning record

• Athletics are 44-17 in last 61 home games

• Athletics are 85-34 in last 119 as home favorites

• Athletics are 5-2 in last seven home games vs. team with a winning record

• Athletics are 10-4 in last 14 games vs. right-handed starter

How to watch Giants vs Athletics

Even Year Giants Making Their Push

It’s a new decade, but the “even year” Giants are still trying to keep up their tradition. In three of the past five “, even years” (2010, 2012, and 2014) the Giants won the World Series.

They made the playoffs in 2016 as well and missed in 2018, but their track record in even years recently is second-to-none.

And as improbable as many of those runs were, the fact that the Giants are even in contention this year might be an equivalently big surprise. San Francisco was widely picked to finish last in the deep NL West this year but instead is in third in the division and was one of just six teams in the NL to go into play Friday above .500.

That’s almost exclusively thanks to an offense that has played well above expectations, coming into play third in batting average (.269), seventh in slugging percentage (.456) and on-base percentage (.335) and 10th in total runs scored (255).

Donovan Solano, the 32-year-old who hit between .189-.252 from 2013-16 and then was out of the majors in 2017-18, currently has the fifth-best batting average in the majors at .342.

He’s been assisted by 30-year-old Mike Yastrzemski who is in only his second season as a big leaguer – an extremely late bloomer by baseball standards – who has a team-best nine home runs, 2.2 WAR, 33 RBI,.390 OBP and .944 OPS.

However, Yastrzemski is now day-to-day after leaving with a calf strain earlier this week.

Wilmer Flores, Brandon Crawford, and Evan Longoria all have WAR’s above 0.8 and have produced above their expected value. It’s the same old Giants formula – don’t make it look pretty but make it effective. They’ve done just that.

Athletics Eyeing Division Title, October

No team in baseball leads its division by as many games as the Oakland Athletics. The A’s sit six games clear of the Houston Astros with 10 games to play, so while it’s not mathematically over, the A’s will win the AL West for the first time since 2013.

However, the A’s got devastating news earlier this month when they lost gold-glover and All-Star third baseman, Matt Chapman, for the season. Add into it that the Athletics’ opponents have the lowest winning percentage in all of baseball and one might wonder how they will fare come the postseason. Of the A’s first 48 games, 45 were played against teams below .500.

That’s not to mention the A’s haven’t won a playoff series since the 2006 ALDS. So while the A’s have looked great this year, have a dominant bullpen and a ton of chemistry, the Bay Area fans in gold and green will always hold their breath until they get a few wins in October.

Expect Some Runs

Not only do the numbers point to runs being scored based on how the Giants have played their interleague games this season, the pitchers in this one have been known to give up some runs this year.

Oakland will send out righty Frankie Montas, who is 3-4 on the year with a 5.86 ERA and 1.53 WHIP. After not giving up a long ball in his first four outings, Montas has given one up in each of the last five games and seven total. Montas has surrendered 24 earned runs in his last 20 innings and walked 11.

For the Giants, Kevin Gausman is 3-2 with a 4.05 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. He’s been better this year, giving up more than three earned runs just once in nine starts this year, but the problem is he’s only made it through two innings twice.

The Giants are 3-6 in his nine starts but his last was likely the best of the year, going six innings, giving up one run on two hits, and three walks to go with nine strikeouts.