Athletics vs. Twins Betting Line – May 5

Carrie Stroup here with your Athletics vs. Twins betting line for May 5 courtesy of our friends at Sportsbook.ag.                               

Sportsbook.ag Line: Minnesota -103, Oakland -107, Total: 8.5              

The Oakland Athletics and Minnesota Twins play their second of four games when they meet up at Target Field on Tuesday night.    

The usually competitive A’s have been little but this year as they have lost nine of their past 13 games heading into this one. The pitching staff has really struggled, allowing opposing offenses to get 5.8 runs per game during that stretch, but let their bats do the talking in a recent series win over the Texas Rangers on the weekend when they scored a total of 21 runs in three contests. They started this set on a sour note, losing 8-7 on Monday night despite getting 13 hits. C Stephen Vogt (.372) has been on a tear all year and is 5-for-8 with three HRs, nine RBIs and three runs in his last two games.

The Twins have been very surprising as the win on Monday pushed their record to two games over .500. They are fresh off of a four-game sweep of the White Sox over the weekend in which they outscored Chicago 31-8 and continued their strong play in the 8-7 win on Monday night. They also had 13 hits in the contest against the Athletics while being successful in 5-of-14 chances with RISP. With a current four-game hitting streak, 3B Trevor Plouffe (.277) is heating up and is 7-for-15 with two long balls, seven RBIs and three runs during the streak.

Heading to the mound for this matchup will be RHP Jesse Chavez (0-2, 2.55 ERA) for the Athletics as he makes his third start of the year and will be going up against 25-year-old RHP Trevor May (2-1, 4.43 ERA) for the host Twins. Oakland’s record on the road dropped to 7-7 on the year with its loss on Monday as Minnesota improved its record at home to 10-4.

The Athletics have absolutely dominated this matchup since the start of 2013 with a 12-3 record and are 5-2 at Target Field in that time. Last year, Oakland won all but one of their seven games against this club and had double-digit hits three times. Trends show that the Twins are a putrid 20-47 (.299) after having won four or five of their past six games in the past three seasons while the Athletics have gone just 27-43 (.386) when the money line is +125 to -125 since the start of last year.

The only injuries for this game come from Oakland’s camp with 2B Ben Zobrist (Knee), OF Coco Crisp (Elbow) and 1B Nate Freiman (Back) on the DL.                       

Chavez came out of nowhere to put together a big season for the Athletics in 2014, posting a 3.45 ERA (1.31 WHIP) over 32 games (21 starts) and more than doubled his previous career-high with 146 innings pitched. He did start this year in the bullpen, but has been called upon to join the rotation once again and is showing that he still can give quality starts. He’s allowed a mere eight hits in his 11 frames as a starter but does have a poor 9:6 K/BB ratio over that period.

Chavez has pitched eight times against this Twins team, but only has one start to his name while going 0-0 with a 4.70 ERA (1.57 WHIP) and has allowed two homers in the 15.1 innings. No current player on Minnesota has more than five at-bats in this matchup, but OF Torii Hunter (3-for-4, 4 RBI) has been impressive in the limited time as C Kurt Suzuki (1-for-5) has struggled.

The bullpen for this team has gone a poor 2-8 with a 4.93 ERA (1.38 WHIP) and have saved a mere 3-of-8 games. Tyler Clippard (2.61 ERA, 2 saves) is holding down the closers role with Doolittle injured and has one blown save while sporting a poor 7:6 K/BB ratio over 10.1 frames.            

May has been a nice surprise for the Twins since making his debut last year and while his ERA has been high, his peripheral numbers tell a different story. In 20.1 innings over four outings in 2015, May has struck out a solid 7.5 batters per nine innings while showing improved control (1.3 BB/9) and has given up just one homer (0.44 HR/9). Minnesota has won in each of his May’s last three starts even though he allowed 10 hits (2 ER) in 5.2 frames against the White Sox in his most recent start.

He really struggled in his one and only start against the Athletics, giving up four runs behind three hits and seven walks in a mere two innings of work. Two at-bats is the most anyone on Oakland has had against the youngster and the trio of 1B Billy Butler, OF Sam Fuld and Macus Semien each have a base knock in the matchup as OF Josh Reddick (0-for-2) has struggled.

The relievers for Minnesota have been solid with a 4-3 record, 3.66 ERA (1.20 WHIP) and are 10-for-12 in save opportunities. Glen Perkins (1.50 ERA, 9 saves) has been great, going a perfect 9-for-9 in his save chances while sporting an 11:0 K/BB ratio.

- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter