Betting Matchup Preview
Game Details
- Who: Oakland Athletics at Los Angeles Angels
- When: Thursday, April 27
- Time: 1:07 p.m. PT / 4:07 p.m. ET
- Where: Angel Stadium (Anaheim, California)
Betting Odds Summary
- Moneyline: Athletics +245, Angels -295
- Runline: Athletics +1.5 (+115), Angels -1.5 (-135)
- Total: Over/Under 8 Runs (-110/-110)
Note: Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook. Subject to change.
The Los Angeles Angels are slowly climbing the AL West standings thanks to back-to-back series against two of baseball’s worst teams. The Halos close out their four-game series against the lowly Oakland Athletics on Thursday afternoon with a massive pitching mismatch.
Megastar Shohei Ohtani (3-0, 0.64 ERA) is dominating on the mound and is an early favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award. Expectations were sky-high for Shotime before the start of the season, especially after his impressive performance in the World Baseball Classic.
Ohtani enters Thursday’s division showdown second in ERA (0.64) and WAR (2.0) among all pitchers while allowing the fewest hits per nine innings (2.6).
Thursday will be Ohtani’s second start against the A’s after holding them to two hits and zero runs over six innings on Opening Day. He also struck out 10 and walked three. In his most recent start, Ohtani shut out the Kansas City Royal over seven two-hit innings while racking up a season-high 11 strikeouts. While Kansas City and Oakland represent two of the worst offenses in baseball, Ohtani has only given up two earned runs in 28 innings so far.
While outstanding on the mound, Ohtani hasn’t been quite as impressive in the batter’s box, hitting .261/.330/.489 with six home runs and 25 strikeouts in 24 games. The rest of the Angels’ lineup is relatively weak besides Mike Trout, so LA needs him to step up at the plate as well if the team wants to finish above .500 for the first time since 2015.
Baseball bettors won’t have to worry about a pitching duel, with JP Sears (0-1, 4.98) toeing the rubber for Oakland. The A’s are 2-2 in Sears’ starts, but the lefty has yet to record a favorable decision. He’s allowed multiple runs and at least one home run in all four of his starts, giving up too much hard contact to be effective despite strong strikeout and walk ratios.
Best MLB Bet Today
The A’s are best avoided in the betting market as they enter Thursday with MLB’s second-worst record against the spread (9-15). Because of this, they are not a profitable team to wager on and sport a return on investment (ROI) here of -30.46%.
The Halos with Ohtani are too heavily favored on the moneyline (-295) to make a reasonable bet. Therefore we are turning to the Los Angeles run line as our best bet for Thursday. With the run line set at 1.5 for this game, the MLB odds for the Angels to cover are set at -135.
At DraftKings Sportsbook’s current odds, a winning $100 bet on the Angels’ run line would pay $74 in profits plus the return of your initial $100 wager.
Same-Game Parlay: A’s vs. Angels
If you are hunting for a larger payout on the A’s vs. Angels game, adding a same-game parlay to your betting card might be worth considering. These are long-shot bets, however.
This type of wager allows you to combine two or more bets from the same event into a single play. The advantage is that the odds for the combined wager are higher than betting all plays separately. For more information, check out our same-game parlay overview.
Here’s the trio of MLB prop bets we have chosen for this game:
- Shohei Ohtani Over 8.5 Strikeouts (-130)
- Shohei Ohtani Over 18.5 Outs Recorded (+110)
- Shohei Ohtani Over 1.5 Walks (+115)
After combining these three bets into a same-game parlay, the odds jump to +699. That would be good for a $699 profit on a $100 winning bet.
Ohtani is the star of our SGP today. The phenom is coming off an 11-strikeout gem with 21 swinging strikes against the Royals, so we like his chances of replicating that performance and getting at least nine punchouts against an even weaker A’s lineup.
He’s also gone at least six frames in all four of his non-shortened starts this year, logging seven innings twice. Assuming no disasters befall him, the big righty could easily record 19 outs (6 ⅓ innings) and cash the second leg of our parlay.
Rounding out our SGP is a slight fade of Shotime with his walk prop to go over. Despite his success and strikeout totals, Ohtani issued multiple free passes in all four of his non-shortened outings. He is sporting the highest walk rate (4.8 BB/9) of his career right now, excluding 2020 when he only made two starts due to injury.
