The Oakland Athletics will take on the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night. It's time to continue our MLB odds series and make an Athletics-Mariners prediction and pick.
Neither of these teams has had the season they were hoping for. The Athletics have been one of the worst teams in baseball, as shown by their 25-52 record. That record has them in the cellar of the AL West, a division that the Mariners hoped to contend for at the start of the season. Unfortunately, things haven't really worked out that way for Seattle. Mediocre, inconsistent play has the Mariners in fourth place in the division with a 36-41 record. Seattle desperately needs to start winning again, and they have a great opportunity to do so here. Let's cut to the chase and get straight into the pick.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Athletics-Mariners MLB odds.
MLB Odds: Athletics-Mariners Odds
Oakland Athletics: +1.5 (-120)
Seattle Mariners: -1.5 (+100)
Over: 7.5 (-104)
Under: 7.5 (-118)
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Why The Athletics Could Cover the Spread
The Athletics will send Adrian Martinez to the mound for this game. Martinez is a rookie who just had an extremely promising start to his season. In his first career start, he managed to pitch 5.1 innings of shutout ball against the Detroit Tigers. Martinez only allowed four hits in that game and didn't walk a single batter. Now Martinez will face a Seattle team that really isn't that much better on offense than the Tigers are. A repeat performance could be in the works here.
Surprisingly, the Athletics haven't been all that bad against the spread in games like this one. Oakland owns a 33-34 record against the spread as underdogs, and their record as road underdogs is even more surprising. In that situation, the Athletics have covered in 26 of 41 contests. Meanwhile, the Mariners own a 12-19 record ATS when they enter the game as a favorite. Seattle is also 8-14 against the spread as home favorites. Overall, this doesn't look like a terrible spot to pick the Athletics.
Why The Mariners Could Cover the Spread
The Mariners will have one of their most reliable pitchers on the hill for this game. Logan Gilbert is currently putting together a fantastic season, earning himself a 2.44 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. Those numbers should be more than good enough to deal with an Athletics offense that has easily been one of the worst in the MLB. Oakland ranks dead last in batting average, slugging percentage, OBP, and OPS. They rank amongst the bottom three teams in the league in every single other major batting statistics as well. Gilbert hasn't faced the A's this season, but it's fair to expect his first outing against them to be a good one.
It helps that Gilbert is playing at home in this game. The righty only allows his opponents a .217 batting average in T-Mobile Park while earning a 0.98 WHIP. It also helps that the Mariners are far better offensively when they play at home, as they put up better numbers in almost every single offensive category when they're in front of their home fans.
Final Athletics-Mariners Prediction & Pick
It's surprising to see the Mariners line look the way it does. They should win by multiple runs here behind the strength of their pitching and the weakness of Oakland's offense. Lock in Seattle to win and cover at home here.
Final Athletics-Mariners Prediction & Pick: Seattle Mariners -1.5 (+100)
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