This article is part of our MLB Picks series.
Expert MLB Picks for Tuesday, September 17
The marathon known as the MLB regular season ends in less than two weeks. Let's try to find some winners and go out in style.
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Oakland Athletics 
at Chicago Cubs 
The Cubs entered the season with an interesting roster and a new extremely well-compensated manager in Craig Counsell. They looked poised to challenge for a very winnable division. They then proceeded to sleepwalk out of the gate and only hung around the fringes of the Wild Card race. They remain very much on the fringes as they sit 5.0 games behind the Mets for the last spot. They would also have to pass the Braves along the way. Not impossible, but extraordinarily unlikely, especially since the Mets and Braves still play three times.
The North Siders have picked up their play in the second half of the season. Over the last 30 days, they rank second in MLB with a wRC+ of 125. What's more, they have gotten production from the entirety of their starting lineup as no one who plays regularly has a wOBA under .314 in the last 30 days.
They face an A's team that has hit surprisingly well all year. Brent Rooker has had a monstrous season, slashing 302/.371/.585 with 38 homers and 109 RBI. Lawrence Butler is not far behind at .270/.326/.512 with 21 homers and 15 steals in 408 plate appearances. As a team, they have a perfectly cromulent 102 wRC+ overall and slightly better 104 wRC+ vs lefties.
They will face lefty Jordan Wicks, who has slogged through a miserable injury-plagued season. Wicks has a 5.27 ERA and a super-ugly 1.68 WHIP overall. In three starts since returning from the injured list (IL), that's a 7.62 ERA and 1.92 WHIP.
Mitch Spence goes for the A's. He's league average, at best, with a 4.33 ERA and 1.35 WHIP that comes with just a 19.3 percent strikeout rate. In all fairness, he has pitched better in the small sample size of his last four starts, with a 2.49 ERA, though his WHIP of 1.43 suggests some luck there.
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Cubs-Athletics Over 8 Runs (-115 Caesars Sportsbook)
This number just feels too low. The Cubs do not have any particular superstars in their lineup, but rather they carry a squad full of solid hitters that have all hit their stride lately. And the A's can seriously mash at times as well. Plus, we could not have a more meh pitching matchup. Wicks is better than his numbers indicate, but he has not shown it yet in 2024.
Rooker Over 1.5 Hits+Runs+RBIs (-135, DraftKings)
Rooker's massive season has gone under the radar a bit, outside of fantasy baseball circles, where his middle name is "League Winner". He has slugged .630 vs lefties this season. A homer alone cashes this prop, but so does any RBI hit. And he figures to have some chances at that with Lawrence Butler batting ahead of him. He will likely have at least five overall plate appearances.
