Texas Rangers @ Oakland Athletics - September 25, 2024

Alright, baseball fanatics! It’s time for a showdown that we’ve all been waiting for – the Texas Rangers are set to clash with the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. You can feel the anticipation in the air as divisional bragging rights are on the line this Wednesday!

As always, I’m wearing my lucky jersey (you know how it is), and I’m ready to dive into this matchup. The Rangers come into this game with a record of 74-83, which is not where we’d want them to be this late in the season. They’ve struggled recently, going 1-4 in their last five outings. But let’s not forget they can turn things around at any moment! They’ve had a tendency to score some runs lately; averaging about 4.2 runs per game while hitting an impressive 8 times per game despite a batting average hovering just above .230.

On the mound for Texas, we have Cody Bradford taking center stage. He’s holding down a solid record of 6-3 this season along with an ERA of approximately 4.5 and racking up close to 8.5 strikeouts per game. Now, while those numbers aren’t mind-blowing, they’re certainly serviceable enough to keep us competitive against our rivals!

The Athletics are coming off a win against our boys from Texas just days ago—a nail-biter ending in a narrow 5-4 victory for them on September 24th—and they’ll be looking to build on that momentum today with Brady Basso taking the hill for Oakland. This young lefty has been impressive thus far with his clean slate of wins and an ERA sitting at around 4.5 alongside nearly 7.8 strikeouts per contest.

Now let’s look at what each team brings offensively because we all know baseball is as much about those juicy hits as it is about pitching! The Rangers boast slightly better offensive stats: averaging over 4 runs and connecting for about 8 hits every game compared to Oakland’s humble numbers of around 4 runs and roughly just under 8 hits per outing.

But here’s where it gets interesting—the total points line opened at just over seven and a half runs for this game, which screams OVER given both teams’ propensity to push those numbers up in recent games (4 out of their last matches have gone OVER). With both offenses poised to make noise tonight, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see something in the range of a high-scoring affair.

Despite recent setbacks against these Athletics, I’m feeling optimistic today—there’s no doubt in my heart that our Rangers will rise to the occasion! So mark my words: Texas takes this one home tonight with more than enough runs hitting that OVER mark!

Let’s go Rangers! Let’s get that W and bring home some bragging rights! ⚾️🔥