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Gambling911.com has your top exposure early Saturday in Major League Baseball and that is with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Despite the high price of -230, the public was all over St. Louis at a 95% clip.
The Red Sox are our second biggest exposure on the day with a late game against Oakland all ready seeing most of the lopsided action at -148. Some books had the number as high as -162 and a few opened at -135.
The line movement alone seems to suggest concern of a Red Sox win. In fact, our sharpest books including BetOnline have inched close to -160 here (and BOL offers a dime line).
Boston is 17-2 on the season compared to Oakland at 9-11, though we would be remiss to point out that Boston is 12-26 in the last 38 meetings in Oakland.
Red Sox LH Chris Sale (1-0, 1.23 ERA) has just one victory in four starts this season despite allowing a total of three runs over 16 innings.
He lasted only five while giving up one run and two hits in a no-decision against Baltimore on Sunday. Sale owns a 5-2 record and 2.60 ERA in eight starts and five relief appearances versus Oakland in his career.
Athletics LH Sean Manaea (2-2, 1.63) has been nearly as good as Sale this season, yielding five runs over 27 2/3 innings in four starts, which might explain why the line was still mostly under the -160 price early Saturday afternoon.
He is coming off a victory his last outing and has struggled against Boston in his career, going 1-2 in three starts while surrendering 18 runs and 26 hits (four homers) over 11 1/3 innings.
The Red Sox are 10-1 in their last 11 when their opponent allows 5 runs or more in their previous game and 6-1 in their last 7 games vs. a starter with a WHIP less than 1.15. They are 6-2 in their last 8 road games vs. a left-handed starter.
The Red Sox are 14-3 in Sale’s last 17 starts vs. a team with a losing record, 17-4 in his last 21 starts after scoring 5 runs or more in their previous game and 22-10 in his last 32 starts.
The Athletics are 0-6 in Manaea’s last 6 starts with 5 days of rest.
The Athletics are 0-5 in their last 5 home games vs. a left-handed starter.
These teams have split wins and losses over their last ten.
- Tony Caliente, Gambling911.com
