The mighty Houston Astros are visiting the feisty Oakland A's this weekend, an interesting series that's caught my attention because it will feature a strong home team that will be underdogs in at least 3 of the 4 games. Tonight, the A's are +110 dogs behind Mike Fiers, who at this point in the season probably shouldn't be an underdog at home against anyone other than perhaps a perennial All-Star, and Aaron Sanchez isn't that. The idea of betting on Fiers and the A's tonight gets even more interesting when looking at the 1st 5 inning results of Fiers' starts this season at RingCentral Coliseum (that's what we have to call it now).
Mike Fiers will be making his 12th home start of the season. He has pitched more than 5 innings in all eleven of his previous 2019 home games. Here's how the A's have fared at the end of 5 innings in each of those games...
March 28th vs. the Angels, the A's led 3-0
April 2nd vs. the Red Sox, the A's led 1-0
May 7th vs. the Reds, the A's led 1-0 (and Fiers went on to throw a no-hitter)
May 23rd vs. the Mariners, the A's led 5-3
May 31st vs. the Astros, the A's led 2-0
June 17th vs. the Orioles, the A's led 3-2 (one of the runs allowed by Fiers was unearned)
June 22nd vs. the Rays, the A's led 2-1
July 3rd vs. the Twins, the A's led 3-0
July 12th vs. the White Sox, the A's led 3-0
July 28th vs. the Rangers, the A's led 1-0
August 3rd vs. the Cardinals, the A's led 5-0
Wow. Eight goose eggs posted by Mike Fiers in eleven tries. Only once did he allow more than one earned run. He hasn't allowed a run at home in the first 5 innings in eight weeks. But now I'm shining a light on all of this. He'll probably get rocked tonight.
My personal pessimism aside, how do you not put your trust in this man when most bookies are offering this 1st 5 inning bet at even money?
I don't want to break down Aaron Sanchez' road games too much because as you already know he pitched most of those games for another team, and a pretty bad team at that. Sanchez had a nightmare season for the Blue Jays, starting a dozen games on the road for them and failing to finish 5 innings in five of those games. In six of those games he gave up at least 4 earned runs in the first 5 innings. He was awful, but he may have newfound confidence in the uniform of the first place Astros (or maybe he's benefitting from better coaching). His first two starts for them have been terrific, so who knows if that will continue or if he'll be more like the struggling pitcher he was all season until he escaped the Blue Jays organization. One note on Sanchez - one of his better road starts this season occurred in Oakland way back on April 21st. He held the A's to one run in 4 innings and only left the game early because of a broken fingernail.
I'm recommending the A's +115 for the full game and the A's at even money or -105 for the first 5 innings. I'll surely be on the A's again tomorrow night when they'll be significant home dogs against that good luck hog, Justin Verlander.
now I feel better about my play on Oakland GL 
Mr. Bator
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