The Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Angels will meet for the 2^nd of a 3-game weekend series on Saturday. The opening pitch at the “Big A” in Anaheim is slated for 9:07 PM ET. The current MLB odds at Bookmaker indicates that the Angels are a money line favorite of -110 and there’s a total of 8.5.

Recent Series History

Saturday will be the 6^th time these AL West Division rivals will have played one another this season. The Angels roared back from a 6-1 deficit last night to come away with a 13-9 win in the series opener. The Angels are now a very profitable 4-1 against Oakland this season. Additionally. 4 of those 5 head to head confrontations went over the total. Furthermore, during the past 3 seasons, Los Angeles is 14-6 at home versus the A’s while 15 of those 20 games went over the total.

Probable Starting Pitchers

Oakland will go with right-hander Andrew Triggs on the mound tonight. Triggs went 5-6 for Oakland in 12 starts last season while posting a respectable 4.27 ERA. Triggs was very good in his lone start of 2018 at home against Texas. He went 5.0 innings in that outing and allowed 1 earned run on 4 hits during a 3-1 Oakland win. Triggs has made 3 career starts versus the Angels and posted a brilliant 1.23 ERA.

The Los Angeles Angels will counter with a right-hander of their own in J.C. Ramirez. He went 11-10 in 24 starts with the Angles a season ago. Ramirez also made 3 relief appearances in 2017 and had a cumulative 4.15 ERA. The 29-year old native of Managua, Nicaragua has made 1 career start against Oakland and that took place a season ago. He was brilliant in that outing by allowing no earned runs on 2 hits while walking just 2 in 7.0 innings of work. On a negative note, Ramirez was shaky in his 2018 debut start against Cleveland. He allowed 4 earned runs in 4 2/3 innings and gave up 3 home runs.

Final Thoughts and Pick

The public betting trends are already indicating there will be a sizable chunk of money being wagered on going over the total in this game. Nevertheless, I’m going to take a contrarian approach in that regard. I’m looking both starting pitchers and each team’s bullpen to be solid tonight. This game will be a lower scoring affair and one of my Saturday MLB picks will be indicative of such.

Pick: Under 8.5

Ross Benjamin is a top sports analyst and one of the sports industry's most respected handicappers. Follow him on Twitter: @RossBenjamin1 or visit his website at RBWins.com.