Posted at 12:00 PM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle -108 BET365 -110 Sportsinteraction -109 888Sport -110

Oakland -108 over Cincinnati

9:40 PM EST. The A's have the worst record in baseball, which is pretty impressive when you consider that the Royals have six wins, the White Sox have seven, and the Rockies have eight. Oakland will send out Kyle Muller (LHP - OAK), who took the loss last Sunday, bringing his record to 0-2. Muller was the keystone coming back to Oakland in that huge nine-player, three-team deal over the winter that sent Sean Murphy to Atlanta. It was a great trade for Oakland and a classic "Moneyball" play as the A's snapped up the Braves' #6 ranked prospect in pitcher Freddy Tarnok, as well as Atlanta's #1 prospect in the pipeline, Muller. The A's also added the Brewers' #8 prospect for good measure.

There is no sugarcoating a 5-21 start, but it is very unlikely that the A's are going to play .192 ball the rest of the way. As for where the A's are going to get those wins, it is going to have to be in a series like this with the "overachieving" Reds in town.

We're being a bit cheeky in calling the 10-15 Reds overachievers, but let's not forget that Cincinnati was supposed to be one of the worst teams in the bigs this season. That is far from the case, as the Reds have a better record than the A's, Rockies, Nationals, White Sox, Tigers, and Cardinals.

Cincy has some nice young arms that we have no problem backing, but Luis Cessa (RHP - CIN) is not one of them. Cessa is 0-3 this season, having struggled through nearly all of his 16.2 innings pitched across four starts. Cessa has seen a steep decline in his already weak strikeout rate of 6.58 K/9 last season to just 3.78 K/9 so far in 2023. His walk rate is up, too, at 4.32 BB/9, and his xERA is 10.04. In short, yikes. Dude cannot be a 50/50 proposition against a bonafide stud in the making.

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