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For the first time this season, the Los Angeles Angels visit their AL West-rival Oakland A’s as they open a four-game series on Thursday night. The Halos remain without superstar Mike Trout and are underdogs on the MLB odds despite starting Shohei Ohtani.

How to Bet Angels at A’s MLB Odds & TV Info

When: Thursday, 9:40 PM ET
Where: Oakland Coliseum
Probable pitchers (away/home): Shohei Ohtani/Chris Bassitt
TV: MLB Extra Innings

Why Bet on LA Angels? | Betting Odds for MLB

It’s dual-threat star Shohei Ohtani on the mound for the Angels – but he should still hit. He’s also been in the lineup for four of his six starts on the mound.

Ohtani is the current favorite to win the AL MVP Award with his prowess at the plate and on the mound. Between his clutch hitting and valuable pitching, Ohtani currently leads baseball in combined win probability added (WPA), on top of his top-10 WAR showing to date. Three of Ohtani’s pitching starts this year have come while he held at least a share of the Major League home run lead.

He’s tracking to produce 7.9 WAR over a 162-game schedule, including 5.0 as a batter and 2.9 as a pitcher. If he maintains that pace, he would become just the fifth player since 1901 to produce at least 2.0 WAR with both his bat and his arm, and the first since Don Drysdale did it in 1965. Of the six Angels starting pitchers, only Ohtani rates above league average.

On Tuesday, Ohtani blasted a homer against the Rangers that had an exit velocity of 117 mph and went a projected 380 feet, per Statcast, making it the hardest-hit homer of his career by exit velocity, surpassing his previous career high of 115.2 mph. It was also the hardest-hit homer by an Angels player since Statcast was introduced in 2015, as well as the sixth-hardest hit big fly by a player this season behind Franchy Cordero (118.6 mph), Giancarlo Stanton (118), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (117.4), Mike Zunino (117.3) and Stanton again (117.3). Ohtani is second in the majors with 15 homers.

Ohtani had been tentatively scheduled to start as a pitcher Friday on eight full days of rest, but Angels manager Joe Maddon apparently liked what he saw from the two-way star during a bullpen session on Tuesday.

“Nothing has really changed,” Maddon said. “I thought I heard Friday, but then it became Thursday. It was my fault. It was a clerical error.”

Last Wednesday, Ohtani showed some diminished velocity but managed to limit the Guardians to two runs over 4 2/3 innings. Ohtani’s fastball velocity was down over five mph for most of the game. He gave up just one run while striking out five through his first four innings, though, and he did get his heater up over 95 mph in the fifth inning. He surrendered a leadoff homer to Jake Bauers in the fifth, however, and was pulled following a two-out walk.

Maddon said after the game that Ohtani wasn’t injured and that he just “wasn’t feeling his fastball tonight.” Ohtani hasn’t faced Oakland on the mound this season but is hitting .286 with two RBIs in seven at-bats vs. A’s pitching. In three career starts vs. A’s, he is 2-1 with a 5.54 ERA and 18 strikeouts. He allowed five runs without recording an out in last outing vs. A’s on 7/26/20.

Why Bet on Oakland? | Betting Odds for MLB

The A’s are 10-14 (.417) in games decided by four runs or more. They have outscored the opposition 102-82 in games decided by three runs or fewer (+20) but have been outscored 138-105 in games decided by four runs or more (-33).

Designated hitter Mitch Moreland was eligible to be activated off the injured list on Tuesday but isn’t ready yet. Moreland has resumed baseball activities and is doing well, he will just need a little more time. He is working his way back from an inflamed costochondral junction of his left rib. The A’s have used the injured list 12 times this year. First baseman Matt Olson leads the AL in go-ahead home runs (6) and is tied for the lead in home runs by a first baseman (12).

It’s Chris Bassitt (4-2) on the mound for Oakland. Bassitt threw 7 2/3 innings, allowing two runs off five hits in a defeat of the Angels last Saturday night in his first time facing the Angels this year. Bassitt struck out eight batters using all six of his pitches, inducing 12 swings-and-misses contributing to a formidable 31 percent CSW (called strikes plus whiffs) overall.

Bassitt cruised through seven with a 6-0 lead but allowed two runs on three hits in the bottom of the eighth before being removed with two outs. Oakland manager Bob Melvin took the ball from Bassitt after he surrendered a two-out triple to Shohei Ohtani on a 102.3 mph drive to center field that was just out of the reach of Ramón Laureano.

Bassitt threw all six of his pitches at least eight times Saturday, relying on his sinker (40 percent of his 95 pitches) even more than usual (35.9 percent on the season). He also topped out at a season-high 96.5 mph on his most reliable pitch. Over two-thirds of Bassitt’s pitches (64) were strikes.

“He’s able to make adjustments on the fly. He doesn’t let the game speed up on him. He throws six different pitches and it just seems like he’s never without any of them. He just finds a way to make an adjustment to get the feel back that he’s looking for,” A’s catcher Aramis Garcia said.

Bassitt has averaged more than six innings per start this season with a 3.69 ERA and 16:73 K:BB ratio. . Over 124 innings in 21 regular-season starts dating back to 2020, Bassitt is 9-4 with a 2.98 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 120 strikeouts.

Bassitt has a 2.62 ERA in his career in the Coliseum, which is fifth lowest in Coliseum history among pitchers with 200 or more innings pitched. He is 4-3 with a 4.67 ERA in 44.1 career innings vs. the Angels.