The Minnesota Twins will try and slow down the Oakland Athletics march to the AL West crown when the two teams kick off a four-game set at Oakland County Coliseum this Thursday night. Game 1 is set to get underway at 10:05 p.m. (ET), and it will be available on MLB Extra Innings.

The Twins head into Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against Chicago with just three wins in their last 13 games to fall to 64-86 on the year. They will remain on the road for this series, where they are 33-43 this year. The total has stayed “under” in three of their last five games.

Tuesday night’s walk-off win against Los Angeles was Oakland’s eighth win in its last 10 games. Heading into Wednesday’s series finale against the Angels, it has a 6.5-game lead over Texas in the division with just 11 games left to play in the regular season. The Athletics are 48-28 at home this season.

Twins at Athletics Betting Storylines

Minnesota finds itself ranked second to last in the American League in both hitting and scoring runs. It has a team batting average of just .241, and this lineup is averaging 3.9 runs a game. It has scored more than four runs only once in its last seven games. The only real bright spot this season has been Justin Morneau with 74 RBI and 17 home runs.

The Twins’ pitching has been equally as bad with a team ERA of 4.45. They will go with Kevin Correia as their starter for Thursday night. The right-hander is 9-12 this season with a 4.31 ERA. His last time out against Tampa Bay, he went six-plus innings and allowed three runs on eight hits to help maintain a 2.87 ERA over his last seven starts. Correia is 1-1 against the A’s with an ERA of 3.10.

Oakland is rapidly closing in on a second straight AL West title behind a top notch pitching staff and a lineup that is hammering home an average of 4.6 runs a game. It tagged Minnesota with 29 runs in three-game road series earlier this month. The big bats for the A’s this season have been Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss. Donaldson leads the team in RBI with 89, and Moss has a team-high 27 home runs.

The main reason why Oakland has been so consistent all season long is a 3.60 team ERA that is ranked second in the AL. It will send Dan Straily to the mound as its starter for this game. He posted his 10th win of the season this past Friday by holding Texas to two runs on two hits in 5 2/3 innings of work. Overall, the right-hander has an ERA of 4.11, but this has dropped to just 1.90 in his last four outings.

Twins at Athletics MLB Betting Odds and Trends

BetOnline has opened the Twins as +200 road underdogs for Thursday night’s game with Oakland listed as a -215 home favorite. The total has been set at 7.5.

The Twins are 3-4 in their last seven road games and 1-7 in their last eight games overall. The total has gone “over” in 10 of their last 15 games.

The Athletics are 5-2 in their last seven games at home and 5-2 in their last seven games against the AL Central. The total has gone over in three of their last five home games.

Head-to-head in this series, Oakland is 2-1 this season and 7-2 in the last nine meetings. The total has gone over in six of the last nine games between these two teams.

Baseball Predictions: Twins at Athletics Picks

Playing on the road in late September when you are 23.5 games out of first place in your division definitely provides  the Twins with very little motivation to get up for a game. Correia has been pitching well lately, but Straily has been even better. This pitching matchup sets up a solid play on the “under” for Thursday night. If you are still looking to play a side, then stick with Oakland despite the prohibitively high money line on this game.

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Read more articles by Dave Schwab