San Francisco Giants at Oakland Athletics 8/20/21 - MLB Picks & Predictions

An interleague battle will take place on Friday night, when the San Francisco Giants visit the Oakland Athletics. The Giants (78-43) have won eight of their last ten games and hold a three game lead over Los Angeles for the best record in baseball. On Wednesday, San Francisco left ten men on base and struck out 14 times during a 6-2 home loss versus New York in 12 innings.

Thirty year old left-hander Alex Wood (10-3 4.14 ERA) will take the mound for the Giants in this matchup. San Francisco has won Wood’s last five starts and he has allowed 16 earned runs over his last 27 innings of work.

The Oakland Athletics have won 34 of their 59 home games and trail Houston by 2.5 games for the AL West Division lead. On Thursday, 1B Matt Olson broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run blast to loft Oakland to a 5-4 road victory against Chicago. Sean Murphy and Matt Chapman also went deep for the Athletics, who moved to 69-53 on the year.

Rookie right-hander James Kaprielian (6-4 3.33 ERA) will make his 16th career major league start for the Athletics. Through 83 plus innings, Kaprielian has struck out 83 batters and owns a respectable 1.16 WHIP.