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Athletics vs. Tigers, 6:40 ET

Athletics vs. Tigers, 6:40 ET

The Thunder won the NBA Championship on Sunday night. The game was great until it wasn't. The Pacers lost their leader, Tyrese Haliburton, in the first quarter, and you can make an argument that Pascal Siakam is their actual best player, but Haliburton was making an impact. The Thunder went on to beat the Pacers with relative ease. Now, we get a team with a team with a bit of a parallel taking on another as the Athletics take on the Tigers. 

The Athletics were looking like they might actually have a good year this season. The team was 20-16 on May 5th. I probably don't need to explain this to you, but that's a winning record. Since that point in the year, the Athletics are now 32-48, meaning they've gone 12-32 over their last 44 games. There was a stretch where the team lost 11 games in a row, and nine games in a row, losing 20 of 21 contests. I suppose if you take that portion of the season out, they actually look like the team they were earlier in the year. I am guessing you won't find a stretch where they start succeeding and winning 20 of 21 games. They are now more thank likely going to look at trading away their players. One of them could be today's starter, Luis Severino. Severino is 2-7 with a 4.42 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP. He has been brutal at home, but he has been phenomenal on the road this season with six starts, 38.2 innings done, and just four earned runs allowed. Overall, Severino has held the Tigers to just four hits in 22 at-bats. 

The Tigers remind me a bit of the Thunder. A couple of years ago, the team was brutal, losing the majority of their games (the Thunder were 42-40 two years ago, but three years ago they were terrible). Detroit was not even on the playoff radar at the beginning of last season. Since that point, though, they have made it to the postseason and are now one of, if not the best, teams in all of baseball. They could make a similar historic turnaround and run from being a bottom dweller to hoisting the championship trophy. Like the Thunder, there is a clear superstar on the team - Tarik Skubal for the Tigers, and he takes the ball today. Skubal is putting up crazy good numbers of his own. For the year, he is 8-2 with a 2.06 ERA and 0.85 WHIP. He also is sitting at 117 strikeouts for the season, all numbers top-five in baseball. He has been slightly better at home than on the road. The Athletics have hit Skubal surprisingly well, batting .395 against him over 43 at-bats. It isn't just one hitter, either, there are multiple batting .400 or better. 

This is a game where the Athletics are live dogs. Staring down Skubal will give the books reason to give the Tigers a really high number, but I am going to take the bait. Severino has arguably been better on the road than Skubal has been at home. I'm backing him to get them a win through five, and I'm putting a few units on the under for this game. 

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