The rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated. The Seattle Mariners shocked the Astros with a four-game sweep in Houston to put themselves right back into the conversation for the AL West and the American League wild-card chase. Seattle opens as the underdog vs the second-place Oakland A’s as the teams start a three-game series tonight in Alameda County. Seattle leads the season series 6-3 and is 14-4 SU vs the A’s in their last 18 meetings.
- The Mariners are 14-4 SU in their last 18 games against the Athletics.
- The Athletics are 8-3 SU in their last 11 games with Sean Manaea as the starting pitcher.
- The total has gone UNDER in the Mariners’ last five games against the Athletics with an average combined score of 4.6.
Mariners vs Athletics Matchup Page
To the Left, To The Left
Two left-handers get the start tonight in the series opener. The A’s look to ace Sean Manaea (10-8, 3.50, 1.05 WHIP) to get them off on the right (left?) foot against the team that’s chasing them in both the AL West and wild-card standings. The 26-year-old from Valparaiso, Indiana is coming off his shortest start of the season on August 7 vs the Dodgers where he allowed three earned runs on five hits in just 2.2 innings. Oakland has not lost back-to-back Manaea starts since May 25 and May 30. He’s 1-1 on the year vs Seattle but has not pitched against them since April 15. The A’s are 1-4 SU in Manaea’s last five starts vs the M’s.
Marco Gonzales (12-7, 3.79 ERA, 1.20 WHIP) gets the ball for Seattle. Gonzales has lost both of his starts in August, allowing a combined 11 earned runs on 19 hits in just 12 innings. He’s started two games against the A’s in 2018 and they unfolded in drastically different fashions. On April 14, Gonzales managed to get through just 3.1 innings, giving up four earned runs on five hits. He was much better on May 23 as he threw seven innings of two-hit baseball and earned the win in a 1-0 ball game.
Oakland Has Been All Over Lefties
Since the all-star break, the A’s are hitting .284/.375/.488 vs left-handed pitching, striking out in 19.5 percent of at-bats. They’ve clobbered 13 home runs and scored 47 runs, second only to Milwaukee’s 56. That’s way up from their first-half numbers of .233/.301/.401 when they were striking out 23.8 percent of the time at the plate vs southpaws.
Low-Scoring Games in this Matchup, but Not for These Starters
Totals bettors have cashed on the UNDER in five straight games in this matchup with an average combined score of 4.6. The average combined score in all nine previous games in 2018 is 7.1. The total for tonight’s game opened at 8.
The OVER has hit in four of Sean Manaea’s last six starts, featuring an average combined score of 8.5. The OVER has hit in four straight Marco Gonzales starts with an average combined score of 10 and closing totals ranging from 8 to 10.5. Before that, he was on a run of five straight starts hitting the UNDER.
