Four of the last five outings for Shane Bieber have been quality starts and he gets the ball for the Cleveland Indians who are favored at -145 in the series opener against the Seattle Mariners who are coming back at +125. The total has gone OVER five of Yusei Kikuchi’s seven starts this year, including his first start against Cleveland on April 15 and tonight’s game has an Sportsbook total of 8 runs.
Mariners vs Indians Game Center
Standout Stats
- Seattle is 5-13 SU and 8-10 ATS in its last 18 games and is currently riding a four-game losing slide.
- Cleveland is 8-6 SU and ATS in its last 14 but it has dropped three of its last four. It earned a three-game sweep over Seattle at T-Mobile Park in mid-April.
- The Indians have averaged just 3.5 runs per game over their last eight and the total has gone UNDER in six of those contests with an average combined score of 6.63.
- The Mariners have surrendered 7.2 runs per game over their last 10 matches and that has resulted in the total going OVER in eight of their last 10 with an average combined score of 11.3.
- Cleveland is 3-2 in Shane Bieber’s five starts this season and he is 2-1 with a 3.68 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. Four of his five outings have been quality starts, but the Indians have dropped his last two appearances.
- Bieber has the highest K/9, BB/9 and HR/9 rate in his young career. He is averaging 10.43 K/9, 3.38 BB/9 and 1.23 HR/9. He is limiting opponents to a measly .182 batting average, over 100 points lower than last year.
- Last year, only 10.5 percent of batted balls against were soft hit and he has increased that percentage to 17.1 in 2019. However, 43.9 percent of batted balls were hard hit in 2018 and that has also climbed to 48.7 percent this season. Seattle has the second-highest percentage of soft-hit batted balls in the majors at 19.4.
- He is mixing his pitches up a lot more this year with his changeup, slider and curveball are all being thrown at a higher percentage than last year, while his fastball usage is way down.
- Bieber tossed six innings of one-run ball on four hits against Seattle in a 4-2 win on April 16.
- Seattle is 4-3 in Yusei Kikuchi’s seven starts this year and he is 1-1 with a 4.54 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP. He has had three quality starts thus far and he tossed just one scoreless inning in his last appearance as he is on an inning limit for the season.
- He is averaging 6.68 K/9, 2.14 BB/9 and 1.34 HR/9. Additionally, Kikuchi is stranding just 61.1 percent of base runners in the early stages of the year. He has been provided an average of 5.71 runs of support this season.
- Of the batted balls against 19.4 percent are soft hit and only 31.5 percent are considered hard hit. Cleveland has the eighth-highest percentage of soft-hit balls and ranks 19th in hard-hit percentage at 36.4.
- Kikuchi was tagged for three runs on five hits over six innings in a 6-4 loss to Cleveland on April 15.
- Cleveland is 2-5 against left-handed starters this year and ranks 23rd with a .219 batting average vs southpaws and have scored the fifth-fewest runs vs LHP. Meanwhile, Seattle is 15-10 vs right-handed starters ranking 15th in the majors with a .247 average against righties, but lead MLB with 189 runs vs RHP.
My Best Bet for Seattle vs Cleveland
OVER 8
Bieber had a strong outing against the Seattle lineup just a couple weeks ago and Kikuchi also pitched well in his appearance vs Cleveland but was saddled with the loss. The M’s have been in a free fall as of late and are surrendering 7.2 runs per game over their last 10 contests. Additionally, Kikuchi is stranding just 61.1 percent of base runners. Five of Kikuchi’s seven starts this year have gone OVER and he has been provided an average of 5.71 runs of support.
