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Posted at 10:15 AM EST.

10:05 PM EST. Jason Hammel (RHP) faced Oakland in Kansas City on June 2 and allowed three earned runs in six innings with a horrible BB/K split of 2/3. Hammel has a 5.53 ERA on the road this season and he’s a starter we’ll rarely get behind but Oakland has the AL's worst home OPS and this wager has nothing to do with getting behind Hammel.

On March 22 during spring training, Paul Blackburn (RHP) was transferred to the 60-day disabled list with tightness in his right forearm. He now gets activated in time for this game against the Royals. Blackburn made his big league debut on July 1 of last season. He was originally a supplemental first round pick of the Cubs in 2012 before being sent to the Mariners in July 2016. Seattle later traded him to Oakland in November 2016. He is all about command and control and works effectively down in the zone with three average offerings and ended up going 3-1 in 10 starts with the A’s last season with an ERA of 3.22. Anyone looking him up will see that record and ERA from last year and may trust him again here against a perceived weak opponent and a legit weak starter. That would be playing with fire. You see,  Blackburn's 3.22 ERA in 2017 was misleading. His xERA was 5.15. His awful 48% first-pitch strike rate means he was constantly working from behind in the count and his MLB worst K% (22 K’s in 58 innings) leaves no hope for a strikeout surge. In one rehab start covering 3.2 innings, Blackburn was tagged for eight hits and three runs while striking out one batter. That sounds about right and now this starter with the worst strikeout rate in the majors last year is favored after a long layoff? We’ll live with the result.

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