Oakland Athletics vs. New York Yankees Betting Trends: July 25th 2009

Oakland Athletics at New York Yankees

BetUS MLB betting matchup: There will be a battle of southpaws on Saturday, as Gio Gonzalez of the Athletics (1-2, 10.38 ERA) squares off against Andy Pettitte (8-5, 4.62 ERA) of the Yankees. Click here to bet on the Athletics vs. Yankees matchup at BetUS

Here are some of the MLB Baseball betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

* OAK has lost four of its last six games
* OAK has played six of its last nine road games UNDER the total
* NY has won its last seven games
* NY has played six of its last seven games UNDER the total
* NY has won ten of its last 11 home games
* NY has played six of its last seven home games UNDER the total

In the HEAD-TO-HEAD sports betting trends:

* NY has won the last seven meetings
* Five of the last seven meetings have gone UNDER the total
* NY has won the last six meetings as the home team
* Four of the last six meetings in New York have gone UNDER the total

The Yankees went into the weekend with seven straight wins over the A’s, as well as a 33-16 record at the new Yankee Stadium. Those are obviously some strong numbers to have in their favor. Oakland, which never has a lot of money to work with (it will be interesting to see what happens when they move to their new stadium) seems to have made a commitment to youth, especially in the pitching staff.

Gio Gonzalez is emblematic of that. Gonzalez, who started seven games for Oakland as a rookie last year, has been considered one of the better prospects in the organization, but he has to start getting something done soon. You are usually going to get mixed results with young pitchers, and after a couple of pretty decent starts, then a one-inning relief appearance on July 10, Gonzalez came back from the All-Star break and got shelled. He gave up eleven runs, which included four homers in just 2-2/3 innings against the Twins before getting mercifully yanked (pardon that pun, because he certainly hopes it doesn’t happen again). Believe it or not, the A’s came back from a ten-run deficit to win that one, but with this team that is usually anemic on offense, that kind of thing isn’t going to happen every often. The opposition is batting .378 against Gonzalez this season, and that just won’t do.

Andy Pettitte went 7-1/3 innings against the Orioles the last time he took the mound, and allowed only one run. That was a rarity of sorts, though, as he has not been very effective inside Yankee Stadium. To illustrate, the performance dropped Pettitte’s home ERA to 5.24, with a 1.60 WHIP ratio in the Bronx.

The Athletics have demonstrated some wild fluctuations lately in terms of their offensive output. They were shut out by the Angels last Sunday, then they scored 14 and 16 against Minnesota, sandwiched around a two-run effort, then had only three across the plate in the Thursday opener to this series. The Yankees went into Friday’s action having scored six runs in three straight games.

We expect that the total for this game will be around 10.5 or 11 runs. We are looking for some scoring, probably coming mostly from the Yankee side. We won’t get a bargain with Pettitte, but maybe we will with the total in the BetUS American League baseball betting odds.

JAY’S PLAY: OVER ***

(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)