The Seattle Mariners (46-29) continue their 10 games in 10 days AL East road swing tonight in Boston as they open a weekend set with the Red Sox at Fenway. Seattle is coming off a sweep at the hands of the Yankees and limps into Boston having lost four in a row dating back to last weekend’s series finale at home against the Red Sox. The Mariners have been outscored 27-13 during their streak.
Boston (50-26) salvaged its series in Minnesota yesterday with a 9-2 win after losing the first two games against the Twins. The Red Sox went 6-4 on their 10-game trip and are two games behind New York for the AL East lead.
- The total has gone UNDER in 12 of the Mariners’ last 16 games against the Red Sox (avg combined score: 5.88).
- The total has gone UNDER in the Red Sox’ last six games at home (avg combined score: 6.17).
- Seattle had four losing streaks of 5+ games last season.
LeBlanc vs Wright 2: Return of the UNDER
A rare same-week repeat pitching matchup sees Wade LeBlanc (3-0, 2.63 ERA) and knuckleballer Steven Wright (2-1, 1.23 ERA) go head-to-head for the second time in seven days. They allowed a combined seven hits and one earned run over 14.2 innings on Saturday in Seattle, a game the Mariners won 1-0. The total has gone UNDER in all three of Wright’s starts this season and he has pitched into the seventh inning in each game. The total for tonight’s game is set at 9.5 on Sportsbook with the UNDER Sportsbook at -115.
LeBlanc has thrown 61.2 innings this season. He hasn’t pitched more than 70 innings since 2011 when he accumulated 79.2 as a Padre. Primarily a reliever during his career, the low-velocity lefty has rarely started against the same team more than once in a season and never twice in the same week. It will be interesting to see how Boston’s hitters game-plan for this situation, considering Saturday was most of the lineup’s first look at LeBlanc.
Boston Bucking High-Scoring Home Trend
The Red Sox are averaging 5.74 runs per game at home this season but bettors have seen the total go UNDER in six straight games at Fenway. The BoSox have averaged 3.5 runs per game during those six home games. Seattle is averaging 4.75 runs per game on the road but scored only 3.33 per game vs the Yankees to begin this road trip.
Mariners Looking to Prove That They’re Contenders
Seattle’s four-game losing streak is currently the longest slide in the majors and the Mariners are dogs coming into Boston, Sportsbook at +120 for Friday’s game. With 10 straight games vs World Series contenders, they view this stretch as a litmus test of their real odds of contending this fall. After seven games, they are 2-5 SU.
Seattle currently has odds of +1200 to win the Fall Classic, drastically lower value than their season-Sportsbook +4000 odds. The Yanks are slight World Series favorites at +400 over Houston at +450. Boston sits at +600. For complete World Series futures, click here.
