The Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics have a must-win game on Tuesday night. Here’s a complete preview, including updated odds and MLB picks.
Seattle Mariners vs. Oakland Athletics
Tuesday, September 21, 2021 – 09:40 PM EDT at Oakland Coliseum
In Marco We Trust!
Time is running out and both teams need this victory. Oakland is two games behind Toronto for the second Wild Card spot in the American League while Seattle is three games out. The Mariners and A’s aren’t exactly mashing the ball and while the Athletics have better numbers in five of seven key categories over the last month, the Mariners have a higher walk rate and they’ve hit more home runs.
Stats over the last 30 days:
Athletics
.731 OPS, 16th-best
Mariners
.701 OPS, 22nd-best
Athletics
.316 wOBA, 15th-best
Mariners
.306 wOBA, 21st-best
Athletics
104 wRC+, 13th-best
Mariners
98 wRC+, 16th-best
Athletics
19.4 K%, 5th-lowest
Mariners
22.1 K%, 13th-lowest
Athletics
8.1 BB%, 17th-highest
Mariners
9.4 BB%, 6th-highest
Athletics
.158 ISO, 21st-highest
Mariners
.150 ISO, 21st-highest
Athletics
28 Home Runs, 22nd-best
Mariners
31 Home Runs, 20th-best
The Mariners will give the ball to Marco Gonzales (5.32 FIP), while Paul Blackburn (5.10 FIP) takes the hill for the A’s. On paper, the Mariners have a favorable matchup, as they’re 13-9 in Gonzales’ 22 starts, earning 4.8 units. The A’s on the other hand, are down 0.1 units on a 3-3 record in Blackburn’s six starts.
Marco Gonzales (8-5, 4.05 ERA, 1.21 WHIP) allowed three earned runs on three hits (one home run) with seven strikeouts and two walks over six innings to get a no-decision in a 9-4 loss against the Red Sox last Wednesday. He is 1-0 with a 3.45 ERA and an 0.99 WHIP in three starts against the Athletics this season. The current A’s lineup is 59-for-223 (.256) against Gonzales and Matt Olson is 10-for-36 (.278) with five home runs and seven RBIs against him.
Paul Blackburn (1-2, 4.94 ERA, 1.57 WHIP) is coming off his first win of the season last Thursday after giving up just two earned runs on six hits (one home run) with three strikeouts and two walks over five innings in a 7-2 victory against the Royals. Blackburn allowed two earned runs on five hits (one home run) with five strikeouts and zero walks over 5 2/3 innings to get a no-decision in a 5-3 loss against the Mariners on August 23rd. He has to be careful with Mitch Haniger, who is 3-for-6 with two home runs and three RBIs against him.
Prediction
The A’s opened at -130 at DraftKings, but over at FiveThirtyEight, they already have them at -108 based on our calculations (they suggest the Athletics will win this game 52 percent of the time). The projections say there isn’t much value on Oakland.
The Mariners rank No. 20 in hitting value (2.6 WAR) in the last 30 days according to FanGraphs while the Athletics are 13th in the majors at 4.1 WAR and the Mariners are No. 21 in Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) in the last 30 days at .306 while the Athletics are 15th in baseball with a .316 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) in that span.
That said, Seattle’s projected lineup has five batters with Isolated Power (ISO) above .185 and eight batters with a hard hit rate above 36 percent and the Oakland lineup has just three batters with a Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) above .340 and three batters with Isolated Power (ISO) above .185, giving the Mariners ample value. Keep that bet size small.
MLB Pick: Mariners +112 at FanDuel
