#925/926 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 7.5 Runs – Texas @ Oakland, Sunday at 4:05 PM ET - These 2 played a low scoring 2-0 game yesterday which sets us up nicely with a lower than anticipated total on Sunday afternoon. Despite not being able to put many runs on the board yesterday, these 2 teams are still highly capable with Texas averaging 5.2 RPG (4th in the Majors) and Oakland averaging 4.3 RPG (13th). Both starting pitchers have had their troubles this season and neither bullpen is very good. Cole Irvin starts for Oakland and he has allowed 8 ER’s this season and is giving up over 2 HR’s per 9 innings. His ERA of 4.32 looks acceptable but his xERA (expected ERA) based on how he’s actually pitched this year is over 7.00. Irvin is a lefty and the Rangers have hit southpaws very well this season with a .278 team BA compared to just .210 vs right handers. Texas will send reliever Garrett Richards to the mound to make his first start of the season. He’s appeared in 4 games this season out of the pen and been terrible, walking an average of 9 per 9 innings and allowing over 2 HR’s per 9 innings. Similar to Irvin, his ERA looks OK at 4.50, however his xERA is actually almost 8.00. Both of these pitchers have been quite lucky this season and we think this total is too low. On top of that, once we get to the bullpens Texas relievers have been poor with the 3rd highest ERA in the league while allowing the most HR’s. Oakland’s bullpen has a much better ERA, however they’ve allowed a bunch of baserunners with a WHIP of 1.40 which is 2nd highest in MLB, so they’ve been a bit fortunate. With this low total we like the OVER.