Athletics vs. White Sox MLB Preview and Best Bet

Two of the top teams in the American League continue their playoff preview in Chicago on Wednesday night. The AL Central leading Chicago White Sox have won the first two in the four game series against the Wild Card leading Oakland Athletics. While the White Sox have a comfortable lead, the A’s need a win as they stand in a virtual tie with the Yankees and Red Sox for the two Wild Cards available. Make sure to check out the MLB odds for this game.

Oakland Athletics vs. Chicago White Sox

Wednesday, 18 August, 2021 – 8:10 PM ET at Guaranteed Rate Field

The White Sox have taken the first two games in their series with the Athletics as two contenders who are flying beneath the national media radar try to send a message in advance of October. While the teams in the East and the MLB villain Astros get all the attention, Chicago has assembled one of the most talented teams in baseball and built an 11-game lead in the American League Central, the largest in baseball. The Athletics are trying to catch the Astros—they’re currently two and a half games out of the West lead—and hold onto their Wild Card spot. Oakland opens play on Wednesday in a tie with the Yankees for the two spots, with the Boston Red Sox a percentage point behind.

There’s only room for two Wild Cards, so the A’s need to snap their three-game skid and look to try to salvage a split with the White Sox. The road to that will start with a first win on Wednesday. The Sox, meanwhile, will look to wrap up the series win and hunt a sweep on Thursday.

Scary Moment

As disappointing as the pair of losses to Chicago were, the games paled in comparison to a frightening incident on Tuesday night. Oakland starter Chris Bassitt was hit by a 100 mph line drive and had to be taken to the hospital. All in all, his condition seemed to be about as good as expected.

“He’s got some cuts, they had to do some stitches. He’s in a scan, and we’ll know more about potential fractures tomorrow or later tonight, we don’t know right now,” manager Bob Melvin said after the game, which Chicago manager Tony La Russa said was played under a “dark cloud”.

The incident came in the second inning, requiring a heavy workload on the Oakland bullpen, but, in terms of personnel, that should be the only impact from Bassitt’s injury on Wednesday’s game. The mental and emotional impact on the players could be heavier, however, and the team will need to find a way to focus on the field in the midst of a troubling slump.

After winning seven straight heading into the weekend, capped by a 17-0 road win over Cleveland, the A’s have had a rough stretch, losing four of their last five and giving up 6.3 runs a game. Oakland has also scored just two runs in the last two games. The A’s will turn to Cole Irvin on Wednesday. He’s 8-11, 3.52 on the year and is coming off of a loss where he gave up five runs in five innings. He’s lost three of his last four starts.

Rolling on the South Side

The White Sox entered the series on a 1-4 stretch, having lost a weekend series to the Yankees, on the heels of a series loss in Minnesota. Chicago had also lost recent series to the Royals and Brewers as the team’s attention seemed to drift a bit as they cruised with a big lead in the Central. Even their recent slump didn’t eat into their double-digit margin at the top of the division. The Sox seemed to have found their groove with the A’s coming to town, however, scoring 14 runs in the two games and allowing just two.

Chicago also got back positive returns on one area of concern as closer Liam Hendriks pitched a lights out ninth to earn the save in game one. In his two previous appearances, he’d allowed a total of three ninth-inning home runs.

“The last two outings, I had to get that bad taste out of my mouth,” he said. “I realized I had been tipping my heater a little bit.”

“Liam is fine,” bullpen coach Curt Hasler confirmed. “He’s the same guy.”

Chicago will start Lance Lynn on Wednesday. The Cy Young candidate is 10-3 with a 2.26 ERA on the year. He’s coming off his first rough start in awhile, giving up four runs in five innings in the Field of Dreams game last week. It was the first time in two months Lynn has given up multiple homers in a start.

The Pick

Apparently, the only way to get to Lance Lynn is to build a ballpark he’s never seen before. Now out of the cornfield and back in Chicago, Lynn should be in more comfortable surroundings. For our MLB picks, look for him to continue the White Sox’s dominance over Oakland in this series.

MLB Pick: White Sox (-177) with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)

White Sox (-177)

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*The pick reflects the line at the moment the writer made the play, the odds at the beginning of this article show the live line movement. Since the lines might vary, don’t forget to refer back to our live odds.

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