Oakland Athletics vs St. Louis Cardinals Prediction: The A’s seek redemption in this finale

The St. Louis Cardinals (9-9) will travel to play Oakland Athletics (7-11) at the Oakland Coliseum in California. The St Louis Cardinals lead in this series with wins in the first two games. Will the A’s respond with a win this time?

Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics are 7-11 this season, losing three of their last four games. In the first two games of this series, Oakland were unlucky with defeats of two and one runs. Prior to this series, the Oakland Athletics won two games against the Washington Nationals and Texas Rangers. The Oakland Athletics will send Paul Blackburn to the mound for the pitching tonight. Blackburn pitched to a 0.00 ERA and a 0.72 WHIP over 19.1 innings this season. Off to this game, the Athletics have trailed after five innings in each of their last five-day games at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum against National League opponents.

St. Louis Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals will be impressed with how they started this series after wins in the first two games that ended 1-3 and 2-3, respectively. However, their overall record now stands at 9-9 this season, and they will surely look to build on that momentum. In the prior series to this, the St. Louis Cardinals had just been defeated by the Arizona Diamondbacks in games two and three of their meetings, even though they won the first of that series with a score of 6-9. So far this season, the St. Louis Cardinals' offense has been struggling to hit in the early stages of the year as they are 23rd in the league with a .662 team OPS and scoring 3.72 runs per game. Steven Matz will take on the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals in this game, and he boasts a 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP over 15.0 innings so far this season.

Expert Tips & Prediction

The two teams' pitching staffs have been impressive so far this year, with the St. Louis Cardinals eighth in baseball with a 3.63 team ERA, while the Oakland Athletics are 11th with a 3.78 team ERA right now. Oakland Athletics started the season playing decently well, but they have hit a bump in the road, and their offense has been brutal in recent games. It is tough to rely on the Oakland Athletics here, but the fact that they did give the Cardinals a tough time in game two and while they send Blackburn, who has been great this season, in this finale, this should be enough to power them to a victory.