{"id":16296,"date":"2011-07-01T16:46:47","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T21:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16296"},"modified":"2011-07-01T16:46:47","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T21:46:47","slug":"struggling-as-host-diamondbacks-in-3-game-set-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/struggling-as-host-diamondbacks-in-3-game-set-betting-preview-16296\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling A’s Host Diamondbacks in 3 Game Set – Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arizona Diamondbacks (44-38) AT Oakland A’s (36-46)<\/strong>
\nJuly 1st, 2011 at 10:05 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 ARI -115, OAK -105<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 EVEN<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 7<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 6.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 ARI- Josh Collmenter; OAK- Rich Harden<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
DeJesus is hitting a career low this year after an outstanding 2010 campaign<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Things really haven’t been easy for the A’s.\u00a0 They’ve now dropped six straight and are 9-10 under their new coach Bob Melvin.\u00a0 It should be an emotional trip for Melvin returning to Arizona where he spent 4 seasons as a head manager before being fired early in the 2009 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s who I came up playing for, and the relationship is there. But at the same time, he wants to win, and so do we,\u201d Diamondbacks outfielder Justin Upton said of Melvin. \u201cWe are going to go in there and battle, and win every game that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks and A’s, as interleague opponents, haven’t faced one another since 2009.\u00a0 In that series, the Diamondbacks won 2 of the 3, and if things continue the way they have for the offensively challenged\u00a0 A’s, then there’s not much hope that this time will be any different.<\/p>\n

The A’s are hoping Rich Harden will make the difference.\u00a0 He hasn’t pitched since September 29, 2010 while a member of the Rangers, and he went 5-5 with a 5.34 ERA in 18 starts last season.\u00a0 Rangers fans were treated to a total bust of a pitcher after he was highly touted when signed as a free-agent.\u00a0 There was every reason for him to be.\u00a0 As a member of the A’s, however, in his first stint, he went 36-19 in 89 starts with a much more impressive 3.48 ERA, over 5+ seasons with the A’s.<\/p>\n

Last season, however, his pitches seemed slower, less accurate and his WHIP was closing in on two (1.76).\u00a0 It’s difficult to win games when you’re allowing that many runners on base.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a track record of success when he\u2019s healthy. Our job, my job, is to keep him healthy,\u201d Melvin said of the oft-injured Harden. \u201cSo, I won\u2019t overextend him on Friday. It\u2019ll be nice to have him out there again. For us, it\u2019s like making a trade, getting some of these guys back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harden’s last appearance was a rehab stint for the A’s triple-A club in Sacramento.\u00a0 As with many pitchers in rehab assignments, he dominated his opponent, striking out 10 in 7 innings, while giving up only one run.\u00a0 Sacramento still lost, but you can hardly blame Harden.\u00a0 Winning tonight will require some help from a struggling A’s offense, though.\u00a0 Over the last eight games, they are averaging 1.6 runs…that’s just not enough run support, even for their strong pitching staff.<\/p>\n

Part of the blame can fall on the shoulders of outfielder David DeJesus, though he had 2 hits in Thursday’s loss to the Marlins.\u00a0 He’s batting .109 over his last 18 games and is .226 on the season. .\u00a0 It’s a huge regression for DeJesus, who hit .318 from the plate last year in 394 plate appearances. He may be able to break the fun against Diamondbacks rookie Josh Collmenter, as he is .359 with 2 HRs and 15 RBIs against the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Collmenter has lost his last 3 starts.\u00a0 He’s 4-4 with a 2.71 ERA and in his first six starts he was 3-1 with a 1.05 ERA.\u00a0 Since that time it has been anything but easy for Collmenter.\u00a0 He gave up six runs in six innings on Saturday against the Tigers.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The Arizona Diamondbacks are 1-4 SU in their last 5 games and they are 7-2 SU In their last 9 on the road.\u00a0 The Diamondbacks are 4-1 SU in their last 5 games against the A’s and the total has gone UNDER In 4 of the Diamondbacks’ last 5 games while they have a 6-1 record over their last 7 games against the Oakland A’s.<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Oakland’s last 8 games and they are 2-6 SU in their last 8 games.\u00a0 The A’s are 6-2 SU in their last 8 at home, however, while the total has gone UNDER in 4 of the last 5 home gamers.\u00a0 It has also gone UNDER for 9 of the last 13 against the Diamondbacks and the A’s are 1-4 SU in their last 5 games against the Diamondbacks.\u00a0 The A’s are 1-6 SU in their last 7 games against the Diamondbacks at home.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 4 of the A’s last 5 games at home against the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n

In the last series against the Marlins, I advocated going ‘under’ in both games I previewed.\u00a0 The A’s have gone under the total in 7 of the last 8 due to absolutely horrendous hitting, and while the total is already set low at 6.5 for tonight’s game, I am suggesting another ‘under.’\u00a0\u00a0 They are averaging 1.6 runs per game over their last 8, as mentioned, and unless the Diamondbacks have a huge offensive outburst, this one should go under.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arizona Diamondbacks (44-38) AT Oakland A’s (36-46) July 1st, 2011 at 10:05 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 ARI -115, OAK -105 Current Line:\u00a0 EVEN Opening Total:\u00a0 7 Current Total:\u00a0 6.5 SP:\u00a0 ARI- Josh Collmenter; OAK- Rich Harden Things really haven’t been easy for the A’s.\u00a0 They’ve now dropped six straight and are 9-10 under their new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":15587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[50,4781],"class_list":["post-16296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-oakland-as"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296","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=16296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16298,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296\/revisions\/16298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}