The Los Angeles Angels host the A's on Wednesday, May 20. First pitch from Angel Stadium is scheduled for 9:38 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on NBCS-CA and MLB.TV.
The A's enter as -130 favorites on the moneyline and by -1.5 (+120) on the run line. The Angels are +110 on the moneyline and +1.5 (-144) on the run line. The over/under sits at 9 total runs.
Find my MLB picks and A's vs Angels prediction below, as well as probable pitchers, weather report, and more.
A's vs Angels Prediction
- A's vs Angels Pick: A's ML -115
My Angels vs A's best bet is on the Athletics to win outright. Make sure to find the best odds by checking our live MLB odds page.
A's vs Angels Odds
| A's Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Run Line | Total | Moneyline |
-1.5 +120 | 9 -112o / -108u | -130 |
| Angels Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Run Line | Total | Moneyline |
+1.5 -144 | 9 -112o / -108u | +110 |
- A's vs Angels Moneyline: A's -130, Angels +110
- A's vs Angels Over/Under: 9 (-112o / -108u)
- A's vs Angels Run Line: A's -1.5 (+120), Angels +1.5 (-144)
A's vs Angels MLB Betting Preview
A's Betting Preview: Scary Stats for Civale
The Athletics have now dropped six of their last nine, and things may not get any easier with Aaron Civale heading to the mound on Wednesday.
The team has recovered offensively, putting up 35 runs in the last week of play as a result of the sixth-best wRC+ (118), but 14 of those runs came against the Angels on Tuesday. For context, they were just 14th in wRC+ during the prior six-day period.
While things don't look terrible on the surface for the A's, who have struck out in under 20% of plate appearances during the last week with decent power numbers and a .277 average, the task at hand has been made quite large due to the shortcomings of the pitching staff — particularly the bullpen.
Civale has actually been a reliable pitcher for the Athletics, standing at 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA, but he's sort of just played casino baseball this season.
The righty has been daring, pitching to a hefty 32.9% fly-ball rate in a home park that's the fourth-best for dingers.
His rate of contact through the air comes in at an astonishing 71.1%, which is about 15 points higher than the league average and a five-point increase over an already-high clip in 2025.
He has also posted a 29.6% Pull Air%, about 13 points higher than average. Considering the park and his outfield defense — which ranks fifth-worst in OAA — you'd think just serving up fly-balls and praying wouldn't be a great strategy, but it has worked for Civale thus far.
The secret could be in his 6.6% barrel rate. Yes, hitters are posting a high 48% hard-hit rate off Civale, but his launch angle has increased slightly from 38 to 40 degrees year over year. It has resulted in a microscopic .172 xBA on the fly-balls, which is 69 points better than last season.
While the .530 xSLG is high, it's pretty low in context. Civale posted an .807 xSLG on gopher balls last year, in line with the league average of .816. This season, the league average is a .260 xBA and .799 xSLG on fly balls, with a 37-degree launch angle.
All that may sound like gibberish, but the moral of the story is that Civale has managed to pitch to catchable fly-balls as a result of a slight increase in launch angle, with some shocking expected results on his contact through the air.
Of course, he has given up six homers and will certainly allow plenty more, but in the aggregate, he's not a terrible pitcher if he's facing a team that likes to elevate.
Los Angeles Angels Betting Preview: Can Halos Hit?
The Angels have now dropped seven of their last eight, and the offense is simply nowhere to be found.
What was already a lackluster lineup, posting a 93 wRC+ to this point with a weak .225 average and middling .148 Isolated Power, has fallen even further with the power dissipating over the last two weeks.
L.A. continues to struggle to make contact, striking out in 25.6% of plate appearances in the last two weeks, which is almost exactly the rate it's running for the year. Now, the walk rate is dipping along with the ISO.
Considering it's hitting just .205, there's no reasonable expectation of a turnaround unless it can start taking pitches and hitting some home runs again.
That's going to put the onus on Jack Kochanowicz to throw a good game here, and he hasn't done that since the start of May.
He has allowed 13 runs (12 earned) across his last two starts, posting a 4:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 10 innings. He allowed three homers last time out against the Dodgers, and his xERA has shot to 5.53 on the year.
Kochanowicz is one of the most extreme ground-ball pitchers in the game, running a 57.6% clip of contact in the dirt, but even still, he has managed another lousy xSLG, which is about 50 points worse than average.
You expect a high xBA with all the grounders — perhaps a bit lower than .281 — but the homers beginning to show up are never a good sign.
The youngster isn't going to miss many bats with a low 13% career strikeout rate, and his walk rate has remained an issue at 11% for a second straight year.
The Athletics are a team that can hit the ball, and hit it hard. They're also disciplined with a high 9.6% walk rate for the year. That's going to have Kochanowicz under the gun.
A's vs Angels Pick, Betting Analysis
Civale has been doing a bang-up job in getting outs through the air, and the Angels are a team that likes to elevate, ranking seventh in fly-ball rate.
They do tend to hit fly-ball pitchers a bit better and play in the eighth-best park for homers over the last two years, but that shouldn't strike fear into Civale, considering he pitches in Sacramento.
What we didn't really cover is Civale's low strikeout numbers, which could throw a massive wrench into this handicap.
The Angels rank ninth in OPS to finesse pitchers — categorized as players with low strikeout and walk numbers — and 23rd against power arms that hunt strikeouts.
We know this is a team that's going to swing for home runs, and there's certainly a chance that more contact ultimately means more potential trouble for Civale.
However, I'm pretty confident in the performance we've seen out of the righty on fly-balls, and the liners and ground-balls that can often hurt him don't seem to be a huge deal.
You dream of a spot like this where you can bet on a man with so many Baseball Savant blue circles, and this may be it. Take the blue-circle discount.
Pick: A's ML -115
