This article is part of our MLB picks series.
MLB expert tips for Tuesday17 September
The marathon known as the MLB regular season ends in less than two weeks, so let’s try to pick some winners and go out in style.
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Oakland Athletics 
at the Chicago Cubs 
The Cubs started the season with an interesting roster and a new, extremely well-paid manager in Craig Counsell. They seemed poised to challenge for a division they could win. Then they started like a sleepwalker, hovering on the fringes of the Wild Card race. They remain on the fringes, sitting 5.0 games behind the Mets in last place. They would also have to get past the Braves to get there. Not impossible, but extremely unlikely, especially since the Mets and Braves still play each other three times.
The North Siders have improved their performance in the second half of the season, ranking second in MLB with a wRC+ of 125 over the last 30 days. They have also had an impact with their entire starting lineup, as none of their regular starters have had a wOBA below .314 over the last 30 days.
They face an A’s team that has hit surprisingly well all year. Brent Rooker is coming off a monstrous season, hitting .302/.371/.585 with 38 home runs and 109 RBIs. Lawrence Butler isn’t far behind, hitting .270/.326/.512 with 21 home runs and 15 steals in 408 at-bats. As a team, they have a perfectly cromulent 102 wRC+ overall and a slightly better 104 wRC+ against lefties.
They’ll face left-hander Jordan Wicks, who has struggled through a miserable, injury-plagued season. Wicks has an overall ERA of 5.27 and a super-ugly WHIP of 1.68. In three starts since returning from the injured list (IL), that’s a 7.62 ERA and a 1.92 WHIP.
Mitch Spence plays for the A’s. He’s about league average at best with a 4.33 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP, which works out to a strikeout rate of just 19.3 percent. To be honest, he’s pitched better in the small sample size of his last four starts, with a 2.49 ERA, although his 1.43 WHIP suggests he got a little lucky there.
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Cubs-Athletics over 8 runs (-115 Caesars Sportsbook)
That number just seems too low to me. The Cubs don’t have any special superstars in their lineup, but a squad full of solid hitters who have all found their rhythm recently. And the A’s can hit really hard sometimes. And we couldn’t ask for a better more Pitching matchup. Wicks is better than his numbers suggest, but he hasn’t shown that in 2024.
Rooker over 1.5 hits+runs+RBIs (-135, DraftKings)
Rooker’s great season has been somewhat lost outside of fantasy baseball circles, where his middle name is “league winner.” He has a .630 batting average against lefties this season. A home run alone gets him that feat, but so does any RBI hit. And he figures to have a few chances to do so, with Lawrence Butler batting ahead of him. He’ll likely be at bat at least five times in total.
