Lucas Giolito threw six perfect innings, Jose Abreu hit a home run that hasn’t landed yet and the Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 4-1 Tuesday in the Wild Card opener.
One loss in a best-of-three series has serious repercussions in the Major League Baseball future markets. PointsBet Sportsbook gave Oakland the sixth-best odds before the postseason started at +1100. With just a little sand left in the Athletics’ hourglass, their price is already down to +2000.
Conversely, the White Sox saw their odds move the other way. Chicago slumped their way into the playoffs, losing 7 of their last 8 games down the stretch. PointsBet placed the South Siders at +1500 entering the Oakland series and those odds have been cut down to +800. Just like that. Poof.[[ad:athena]]
“We’ve never seen 16 baseball teams playing three-game roulette in the playoffs before,” one Vegas bookmaker told NBC Sports. “You have to be quick to make these adjustments, especially if a team loses in heartbreaking fashion. A team can really be neutered on one pitch in one game.”
The Minnesota Twins certainly come to mind. They had golden opportunities against the Astros early in Tuesday’s game but couldn’t capitalize. Houston scored three runs in the ninth to beat Minnesota 4-1. It was the Twins’ 17th straight playoff loss dating back to 2004.
PointsBet knocked the Twins down from +1200 to +1800.
The Yankees and Rays both rose from +600 to +475 after taking their series openers while Houston budged a little from +1700 to +1500. On the flip side, the Indians ballooned from +1500 to +2500 and the Blue Jays ticked up from +3500 to +4500.
I’ll tell you what though, if Cleveland can knock off Masahiro Tanaka tonight, there’s zero chance that +2500 on the Tribe will be available in the morning. Especially considering that Game 3 is in Cleveland with Zach Plesac getting the pill.
“It’s the damn Wild West for the baseball trading team,” the bookmaker proclaimed.
And everybody has to keep a finger real close to the button.
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