Two sub-.500 teams, two very different trend lines — Detroit's won 4 of its last 5 while Oakland's lost 4 of its last 5, and the gap is starting to show.
Bush’s Picks
ATHDET
ATHDET
OverUnder
Best BetTigers
Detroit's the play — Melton's riding a 4-1 mark and has been one of the more reliable arms in baseball the past six weeks, while Springs is fighting a 5.79 ERA that's only trending the wrong way. The Tigers have won 4 of 5, Oakland's lost 4 of 5, and that split shows up in who's actually finishing games. This looks like as clean a price edge as the board offers this week.
Athletics
+Capable of explosive innings (Heim grand slam vs Miami)
+Beat the Dodgers 7-1 on July 2
−Lost 7 of last 10, 4 of last 5
−Soderstrom, Wilson, Rooker all out
Tigers
+Won 4 of last 5, including series wins over Yankees/Rangers
+Melton has a 2.05 ERA, dominant last start
−Still sit at 40-50, no lock themselves
−Torres out, Vest on 15-day IL
Troy Melton (4-1, 2.05 ERA) takes the ball for Detroit on Wednesday, July 8, and he's quietly become one of the better stories in that rotation since returning from the minors in late May. His last start was a gem — 6.1 innings, zero earned runs, 7 strikeouts against the Yankees. Jeffrey Springs (3-8, 5.79) is walking into the opposite kind of stretch; his last outing against the Dodgers ended with 6 earned runs allowed over 5.1 innings, the latest entry in a rough summer for the Oakland lefty.
Oakland's issues go beyond who's on the mound. Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson are both out until after the All-Star break, and Brent Rooker is done for the season after opting for surgery on a torn cartilage in his knee — three regulars gone from a lineup that was already stretched thin. Detroit has its own absence to manage in Gleyber Torres, still working back from an oblique strain, but the Tigers have kept winning without him, which says plenty about the depth A.J. Hinch has built out.
Show fees
6:40 PM ET
Spread
ML
Total
ATH Athletics
DET Tigers
Zoom out and both clubs are still stuck below .500 with a long summer left to sort out — Detroit's 40-50, Oakland's 41-49, separated by a half-game in the standings but not much else. The Athletics have dropped 7 of their last 10 and haven't won a home series in West Sacramento since April 30, a stretch that's turned every road trip into damage control.
Athletics
Jul 7?@ Tigers—
Detroit Tigers
Jul 7?vs Athletics—
Recent form.
It hasn't been all bad for Oakland — Jonah Heim's grand slam and six-RBI day against Miami showed the offense can still catch fire, and a 7-1 win over the Dodgers on July 2 says the roster isn't empty of pop. But those flashes have been bookended by blowouts, including back-to-back losses to that same Marlins team by scores of 5-12 and 2-7. Detroit's stretch has been steadier — a 9-3 rout of the Yankees, a 3-0 shutout of the Rangers — and the bullpen has held up even with Will Vest sidelined by elbow inflammation.
Athletics
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Detroit Tigers
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
With the All-Star break closing in, this one carries more weight for Detroit's playoff math than for Oakland's. The Tigers are still hanging around the wild-card picture, while the A's look like a team playing out a lost summer. Melton's turned into exactly the arm a club wants in that spot — if he keeps stacking starts like his last one, Detroit won't need much offense to take this series.
