The Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants are in the throes of the two best division pennant races in Major League Baseball at the moment, so every game down the stretch is critical. As these teams try to cling onto their respective division leads, they will meet up at 9:05 PM ET at AT&T Park in what should, at the very least, be an interesting Saturday night matchup. And BetAnySports customers can challenge the baseball betting odds in real time even after the game begins, as they access the phenomenon known as Live Betting Ultra.

It promises to be a very eventful sprint to the finish in the American League East, as the Orioles just took the lead over the Toronto Blue Jays with last night’s 5-2 victory over the Giants, in which Dylan Bundy led the way with 5-2/3 innings of strong work and the O’s chased a beleaguered Matt Cain after four innings. They are on top of Toronto by just a half-game, with the Boston Red Sox only 2.5 games behind and even the New York Yankees hanging in there, six games out of the lead.

The Giants are a game ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and it certainly hasn’t helped that they have lost 17 of their 25 games after the All-Star break. That has pretty much coincided with a breakdown at the plate.

Madison Bumgarner has a 2.20 ERA, but only a 10-7 record. The ace southpaw will get the start for the Giants. His opponent will be Kevin Gausman (3-9, 4.02 ERA), but has been anything but at home on the road.

In the baseball betting odds that have been posted on this game by the people at BetAnySports, the Giants are the solid favorites:

Baltimore Orioles (Gausman – R) +152

San Francisco Giants (Bumgarner – L) -162

Under 7 Runs -120

Over 7 Runs +100

Gausman is 0-8 on the road this season, with a 5.37 ERA, but that tells only part of the story. He has had a tendency to give up the long ball, and to do it early. Of the 21 homers he has allowed, nine of them have come in the first inning. He has also not been very assertive in his seven inter-league starts as a major leaguer, with a 5.22 earned run average.

The question is whether this is something that he is going to be vulnerable to that against these Giants, who have now scored a grand total of three runs in their last three games and two runs or fewer in twelve of their last 22.

Bumgarner has yielded six homers in his last five starts, but at AT&T Park, where he has a 1.59 ERA, he’s surrendered just five round-trippers in 84 innings. From that perspective, it might put him in good stead against a Baltimore team that leads the majors in homers. Of course, it would really be a help if he could get some runs in his favor. The Giants have backed him with an average of 4.2 runs per game, but they have scored two runs or less in four of his last five starts.

Here is an interesting contrast – while Bumgarner has held opponents at home to a .178 batting average, the opposition has a .113 home run average against Gausman in the first inning.

Sign up with BetAnySports and get a jump on the football season, and get the best value in baseball betting, as reduced juice covers both…….Free play bonuses are great, and you can make all of your transactions using the virtual currency of Bitcoin!