Los Angeles at Oakland

Second half action gets underway tonight with the Oakland A's hosting the Anaheim Angels. It has been a breakout season for Dallas Braden of the A's, who enters this one with a 2.45 ERA in his last four starts, and a 3.12 ERA overall. Braden has pitched extremely well at home where he has not allowed more than three runs in any of his nine home starts, while pitching to a 2.79 ERA. Such have not been the fortunes of Ervin Santana of the Angels. Santana has struggled all season long, where he is just 1-5 with a 7.81 ERA. As hard as it is to believe he has been even worse of late, posting an ERA close to 10 in his last three starts. Also, in the last five times he has started for the Angels as a dog of +110 to +150, he has gone down to defeat. What makes this an even more of a difficult task for the Angles is that Santana is backed by a bullpen that is allowing over five runs a game, and ranked third from the bottom in all of MLB. I’m going with the A's here.