Today’s play is on the Oakland Athletics -135. Come playoff time, in any sport, there is one position that needs to excel for a team to come out victorious. In baseball, that position is the pitcher. Tonight Bary Zito faces Nate Robertson, which makes our decision a whole lot easier. Zito takes to the mound for the A’s for the first time after his masterful performance against the Twins. He pitched 8 innings giving up only 4 hits and 1 run. Expect Zito to dominate once again tonight, as he has a career ERA of just 2.68 against the Tigers and gave up only 1 run in his last outing against them. Nate Robertson on the other hand, had a horrible performance against the Yankees in Game 1 giving up 7 runs on 12 hits in 5 innings. In four career starts against <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on">Oakland</st1:City> he has a 5.46 ERA, not to mention an 8.31 ERA when playing in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Oakland</st1lace></st1:City>. The offenses are pretty evenly matched, so it will come down to who can get the big hit when needed. This could be a close game, but we believe the A’s offense will come through tonight and Zito will shut down the Tigers.
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Oakland</st1lace></st1:City> Athletics -135 --- COUTESY DIVESHANDICAPPING
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Oakland</st1lace></st1:City> Athletics -135 --- COUTESY DIVESHANDICAPPING