The Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels meet Thursday in MLB action at Angel Stadium. The Oakland Athletics look for a win after winning 5 of their last 8 games. The Los Angeles Angels look for a win after splitting their last 8 games.

The Oakland Athletics have scored 5 runs in their last 3 games and 3 or fewer runs in 4 straight games. The Athletics have lost 4 of their last 6 games when scoring 3 or fewer runs. Sean Murphy leads the Athletics with 84 hits and 45 RBI, while Elvis Andrus and Seth Brown have combined for 152 hits and 72 RBI. Paul Blackburn gets the ball, and he is 6-6 with a 4.15 ERA and 86 strikeouts this season. Blackburn is 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA and 9 strikeouts in his career against the Angels.

The Los Angeles Angels have scored 6 runs in their last 3 games and 3 or fewer runs in 5 of their last 6 games. The Angels have lost 7 of their last 8 games when scoring 3 or fewer runs. Shohei Ohtani leads the Angels with 95 hits and 62 RBI, while Jared Walsh and Taylor Ward have combined for 162 hits and 76 RBI. Janson Junk gets the ball, and he is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 9 strikeouts this season. This will be Junk’s first career game against the Athletics.

The Athletics are 2-5 in their last 7 Thursday games and 5-12 in their last 17 road games. The Angels are 7-3 in their last 10 during game 3 of a series and 17-42 in their last 59 overall. The under is 4-1 in Athletics last 5 overall. The under is 6-2 in Angels last 8 overall. The Athletics are 1-5 in the last 6 meetings.

Paul Blackburn is coming off a rough July where he allowed 29 hits and 21 runs in 25.2 innings. However, Blackburn is having probably his best season of his career and the Angels can’t score runs. The Los Angeles Angels continue to be the most frustrating team in the league, and they’re not a club I’m eager to back, especially in the favorite role. If you give me plus money on the other side, I’m always going to take it when it comes to fading the Angels. Here goes…