Two teams heading in opposite directions meet today with the A's and Twins on a Sunday matchup. Several strong factors will support our reasoning for taking the Athletics with Parker on the mound. Parker has been the A's stud. Brilliant most of the times with only a couple of shaky outings. Dominant in all of his starts, giving up only two runs or less, shaky in two starts of those 14.
However, immediately after the shaky starts of giving up 5 runs or more, Parker resumes his dominant ways on the next game, posting a sparkling under 1 ERA of just 0.70 in those starts after giving up 5 runs or more. Another important factor is Parker has pitched in almost a similar situation on May 29 , when he proceeded to shut out the Twins in 6 innings at Minnesota. Even though this will be the second go round, I don't expect the Twins to solve Parker.
The Twins offense is struggling once again....not a good spot to matchup against one of the AL's dominant young pitchers. Parker has proven he can be dominant on the road as well, shutting out the Twins back in May and posting an impressive shutout of the Rockies at Colorado, not an easy task even for the best of pitchers.
This is an excellent spot to take the ATHLETICS on the first five innings as the current line is even money. To get even money with Parker on the mound and the Twins mired in a four game losing streak.......it's a STRONG PLAY.
-------------ATHLETICS FIRST FIVE INNINGS/ EVEN MONEY---------------
BEST OF LUCK!