After Shea Langeliers homered in the Athletics' comeback victory on Tuesday night, the Rangers evened the series with a 6-2 victory last night. They will look to take the rubber match today as Jon Gray will get the ball in search of his first quality start of the season.
The Phillies took two of three from the Cardinals to begin the week. They return home for the first of four with another NL Central foe, this time the in-state Pirates. Alec Bohm will look to knock in another run.
Find my MLB player props and picks for Thursday below.
MLB Player Props Today (April 11)
This season has not gotten off to a great start for Jon Gray. He enters with a 6.14 ERA and has to yet to get out of the fourth inning in either of his first two appearances. However, those starts also came against the Cubs and Astros, so he may build his confidence today against the Athletics.
Since joining the Rangers, Gray is 2-0 with a 3.41 ERA in five starts against the Athletics. He has gone six full innings in three of those five starts and also went 5 and 1/3 innings in another start in that span. Today, 5 and 2/3 innings will get the job done.
I like Gray's chances of working deep into this game considering that Oakland is 27th in runs scored this season. The Athletics are also 27th in On-Base Percentage and 20th in wRC+ against right-handed pitching. Six of the last eight starters that the A's have faced have hit this line, including Gray's teammates Nathan Eovaldi and Cody Bradford in the first two games of this series.
Gray threw 67 pitches in his first start and jumped to 84 pitches in his second outing. Assuming he goes for 90 pitches or so tonight, he should have enough in the tank to go six innings provided he keeps the A's offense in check. That will get us the 17 outs that we need today.
Pick: Jon Gray Over 16.5 Outs Recorded (-120)
Alec Bohm is hitting just .238 to begin this season. However, he has driven in seven runs and scored another three himself in 12 games. As a result, he has this line in four of his last six games and six of his last 10 games. Over that span, he is averaging 1.7 hits + runs + runs batted in per game.
He is also averaging 2.4 hits + runs + runs batted in per game in his last 12 games against the Pirates over the last two seasons. Today will be his first time facing Pirates right-hander Jared Jones as the rookie will be making his third career start. He has been impressive thus far with 17 strikeouts in 11 and 2/3 innings. However, he also allowed nine hits and five earned runs and enters with a 3.86 ERA.
Jones will have a tough assignment tonight against this Phillies lineup. Bohm will likely bat either fourth or fifth behind Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto. Just one of them needs to be on base for Bohm to drive them in, preferably with a hit, though a RBI groundout or sacrifice fly also help. Bohm had 97 runs batted in last season and is off to another solid start.
If he does not drive in a run tonight, he can also hit this line with a hit and run scored. Nick Castellanos and Bryson Stott would be among the more likely candidates to drive him in batting behind him in the Phillies lineup.
Pick: Alec Bohm Over 1.5 Hits + Runs + Runs Batted In (-125)
