{"id":16270,"date":"2011-06-29T17:49:02","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T22:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16270"},"modified":"2011-06-29T17:49:02","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T22:49:02","slug":"let-the-fun-continue-struggling-marlins-take-on-offensively-challenged-as-in-game-2-of-3-game-set-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/let-the-fun-continue-struggling-marlins-take-on-offensively-challenged-as-in-game-2-of-3-game-set-betting-preview-16270\/","title":{"rendered":"Let the “Fun” Continue: Struggling Marlins Take On Offensively Challenged A’s in Game 2 of 3 Game Set – Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Marlins (34-45) AT Oakland A’s (36-44)<\/strong>
\nJune 29, 2011 at 10:05 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 EVEN<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 OAK -114, FLA -105<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 7.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 7<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 FLA- Ricky Nolasco; OAK- Guillermo Moscoso<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nolasco has had a rough time lately, but there's no better team to build confidence against than the poor hitting A's<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I closed last night’s article <\/a> about this series, I commented:<\/p>\n

…it would be a stretch to call it (last night’s game) a true pitcher’s battle in light of the fact that the low total has more to do with two horrid offenses that provide their starters with little to no run support<\/em><\/p>\n

Also commenting on Javier Vasquez’ decline, I expected him to get rattled for at least a few runs (while he only allowed one), while correctly selecting the winner of the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been a tough month, man, that\u2019s all I\u2019ve got to say really,\u201d Vasquez said following the frustrating loss. \u201cIt\u2019s unexplainable. We were playing such good baseball the first couple of months and now it seems like we\u2019re doing something that costs us the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason for recapping this is that tonight doesn’t seem to have the makings of a much hiring scoring game.\u00a0 Last night’s opening total was set at 5.5, two runs lower than tonight’s opening total of 7.5, but the A’s have won 7 straight at home now, and the Florida Marlins have shown little to no signs of breaking out a slump that has already decimated their chances at making any kind of post season run.<\/p>\n

At least with the A’s there is reason for hope.\u00a0 The team’s staff has one of the best ERAs in the majors at 3.13 and over the last 12 games the A’s have won 8 of them while the staff has held opponents to a .196 Batting average, while maintaining an ERA under 2.00 during that stretch (1.56 ERA).\u00a0 While their offense is struggling, last night’s contest only further proved the fact that
\nTonight’s starter Guillermo Moscoso is 2-3 with a 2.68 ERAa strong pitcher can win a game for a team by virtue of shutting out the opponent.<\/p>\n

Guillermo Moscoso will take the mound for the A’s tonight.\u00a0 Baseball Prospectus had this to say about Moscoso:<\/p>\n

“Armed with little more than a phantom fastball with average-to-plus velocity and crazy life, Moscoso looks to be a better fit out of the pen…if his curveball can find some consistency, Moscoso might be able to stick on a major league roster…”<\/p>\n

Stick on a major league roster, he has.\u00a0 So far this season his ERA is 2.68, a nice caveat for a pitcher who spent his entire career in the minors and is now only starting to pitch well at a major league level at age 27.\u00a0 Friday night, Moscoso held a no hitter through five innings, before giving up 2 hits in the 6th and 7th innings, and exiting the game, and then the bullpen went on to blow the game, giving up a run, while the offensively hapless A’s failed to score a run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to push myself into the rotation to stay all year,\u201d Moscoso commented. \u201cThe guys on the (disabled list) are coming very soon, and that\u2019s going to be a tough decision. I wish I can stay here, so we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Marlins are hoping Ricky Nolasco can help right the ship before it completely sinks.\u00a0 He’s 4-4 on the season with a 4.44 ERA, but has lost his last 4 decisions while giving up 7.29 earned runs int hat span.\u00a0 Nolasco realizes he has to be near-perfect for the Marlins to have a shot.\u00a0 He commented “I told myself I can’t give up a run if I want to win…”<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The Florida Marlins are 2-14-1 SU in their last 17 games and they are 0-4-1 SU in their last 5 on the road, while they are 2-3-1 SU in their last 6 against the A’s.<\/p>\n

The A’s are 1-4-1 SU in their last 6 games and they are 5-0-1 SU in their last 6 games at home.<\/p>\n

As I have already said, tonight’s game is most likely going to be a low scoring affair.\u00a0 Given the teams’ offensive struggles and the fact that last night featured only 1 run between them, the totat at 7.5 may be a bit too high.\u00a0 A bet on the ‘under’ in this one seems like a very profitable proposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Marlins (34-45) AT Oakland A’s (36-44) June 29, 2011 at 10:05 PM EST Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 EVEN Current Moneyline:\u00a0 OAK -114, FLA -105 Opening Total:\u00a0 7.5 Current Total:\u00a0 7 SP:\u00a0 FLA- Ricky Nolasco; OAK- Guillermo Moscoso As I closed last night’s article about this series, I commented: …it would be a stretch to call it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[130,4781],"class_list":["post-16270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-florida-marlins","tag-oakland-as"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16270"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16272,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16270\/revisions\/16272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}