The Oakland Athletics enter this game on a five-game losing streak which includes a 2-6 loss on the road against the St. Louis Cardinals in game two of the series on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis Cardinals enter this game having won four of their last five games and are on a three-game winning streak which includes Tuesday’s 6-2 win at home against the Oakland Athletics in game two of the series.

BookMaker has the St. Louis Cardinals listed as -185 money line favorites at home against the Oakland Athletics and has set the total for the over/under plays at 9.5 runs. Will the Cardinals extend their winning streak to four games or will the Athletics end their five-game losing streak? Let’s take a deeper dive into how these teams are performing this season.

Oakland Athletics Team Preview

The Oakland Athletics enter this game with an overall record of 33-87 which puts them in 5^th place in the AL West and are coming off a 2-6 loss in game two of the series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Offensively, Oakland scored two runs off six hits with both runs coming in the 7^th inning when Lawrence Butler hit a two-run home run that also scored Tyler Soderstrom.

The Athletics will send Paul Blackburn to the mound for game three of the series against the Cardinals on Wednesday. Blackburn is 2-3 this season with a 4.52 ERA while recording 66 strikeouts.

St. Louis Cardinals Team Preview

The St. Louis Cardinals enter this game with an overall record of 54-66 which puts them in 4^th place in the NL Central and are coming off a 6-2 win against the Oakland Athletics in game two of the series.

Offensively, the Cardinals scored six runs off 14 hits with four of the runs coming in the 1^st inning which included a two-run home run hit by Nolan Arenado that also scored Paul Goldschmidt.

Matthew Liberatore will take the mound for St. Louis against Oakland on Wednesday for game three of the series. Liberatore is 2-4 on the year with an ERA of 5.72 and has recorded 30 strikeouts.

Series Trends and Game Pick

Oakland has won seven of the last ten games in the series and has won by an average score of 4.6 to 3.5 in those matchups. The Cardinals have won two of the last three games in the series and have won by an average score of 5 to 3.67 in those contests.

The total is 5-5 in the last ten games in the series with the teams combining for an average of 8.1 runs per game in those contests. The under has hit in two of the last three games in the series with the teams combining for an average of 8.67 runs per game in those matchups.

St. Louis enters this game with a better record, however, Oakland has been the better team overall in the last ten games in the series, winning seven of the last ten games. The Athletics have won by an average margin of 1.1 runs per game over the last ten games in the series. As a result, I am taking the run line for the Oakland Athletics at +1.5 on BookMaker for this matchup on Wednesday evening.