MLB Picks 6/3 – Oakland As @ Miami Marlins

MLB Picks 6/3 – Oakland As @ Miami Marlins

The Oakland A’s (12-47) are on the road facing the Miami Marlins (30-28) in the second game of a 3-game set this afternoon. Miami won the first game 4-0 last night behind a strong effort from young starter Edward Cabrera who struck out 10 batters in 6 innings. Tonight’s starters are Luis Medina (0-4, 6.83 ERA) for Oakland and Eury Perez (2-1, 2.84 ERA) for Miami. 

GAME ODDS

Moneyline: Oakland +172, Miami -205

Run Line: Oakland +1.5 (-118), Miami-1.5 (-102)

Run Total: over 8 (-118)  under 8 (-105)

GAME STORYLINES

At 12-47, the Oakland A’s are on pace to set the record for most losses in the 162-game modern era. The 1962 Mets (40-120) and the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119) are the two teams that Oakland appears to be gunning for as management has spent the last few years selling off their top players. The players did show some fight recently as they took 2 of 3 from the NL East leading Atlanta Braves at home last week. In Oakland’s win against Atlanta on May 29, first baseman Ryan Noda’s 3-run homer in the fifth inning broke a 1-1 tie and resulted in a 7-2 win that broke an 11-game losing streak.

 

Amidst the horrific season Oakland is having, rookie centerfielder Esteury Ruiz has emerged as a bright spot hitting a team-leading .269 with 1 homer and 24 RBI, and Ruiz has a league-leading 28 stolen bases. Ruiz is on pace to break the AL rookie single-season stolen base record of 66, which was set by Cleveland’s Kenny Lofton in 1992 and has an outside shot at winning AL Rookie of the Year if his power numbers improve. 

 

Left fielder Brent Rooker’s 11 homers and 32 RBI lead the team. 25-year-old catcher Shea Langeliers, the centerpiece prospect Oakland received when they shipped off Matt Olson to Atlanta in March 2022, has 7 homers and 24 RBI. 

 

Stay tuned to see whether Oakland decides to ship off Ruiz, Rooker and/or Langeliers to a World Series contending team or keep them for the entire season and 2024, and use them as foundational building blocks for the rumored move to Las Vegas in 2025. 

 

The Miami Marlins have been one of the bigger surprises in baseball this season as they enter today’s game at 30-28 and just 3.5 games behind first place Atlanta in the NL East. Miami has not had a winning full season (they finished over .500 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season) since 2009 when they were still the Florida Marlins, and they’ve lost 90+ games for 5 straight full seasons. 

 

A huge reason for Miami’s turnaround this season is the play of designated hitter Jorge Soler, who’s hitting .249 with 17 homers and 36 RBI. Soler had a recent stretch where he homered in 5 straight games from May 23 through May 27, and he’s on pace to have his best season since 2019 when he hit 48 homers and drove in 117 with the Kansas City Royals. The 2021 World Series MVP could be in the running for 2023 NL MVP if he keeps up this pace and Miami makes the postseason. 

 

Miami second baseman Luis Arraez leads all of baseball with a .374 batting average, he also has 1 homer and 21 RBI in his first season with the club. Arraez led the American League in batting last season with a .316 average with Minnesota. 26-year-old left fielder Bryan De La Cruz is also playing well in his second season hitting .299 with 7 homers and 24 RBI. 

 

THE PICK 

Until proven otherwise, I’m picking against the A’s as much as possible. Take Miami on the run line here, its a good value at just -108