Today we’ll take a look at the race for the postseason in the American League and preview a matchup between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics. The two AL West giants are tied at 77-66, three games out of the wild card and 6.5 games out of the division, which is led by Houston. With so much on the line, this should be an incredibly thrilling series. In this specific game, we’ll see two lefties toe the hill, testing both team’s abilities against said handedness. Will another southpaw bite the Mariners? We’ll go over the MLB odds and give out our MLB picks at the top-rated sportsbooks.
Monday, September 20, 2021 – 9:40 PM EDT at Oakland Coliseum
As the above indicated, the Mariners have been poor in 2021 against left-handed pitching. They had a chance to go out and add a right-handed power bat to solve this dilemma at the trade deadline, perhaps Nelson Cruz, their old friend, but instead, Seattle swapped their closer for a slightly-worse closer and got a left-handed-hitting infielder. While that infielder, Abraham Toro, hasn’t been too bad for Seattle, its Achilles heel continues to be left-handed pitching.
The Mariners rank 26th against lefties this season with a 91 wRC+, a number that is supplemented by a poor.680 OPS and a gaudy 25% strikeout rate. Seattle has actually posted a .270 batting average on balls in play against lefties, which would indicate that their struggles aren’t merely a product of bad luck. Despite all those numbers and a .225 average, the most staggering of all could be that the Mariners rank fourth in home runs hit against left-handed pitching, which illustrates just how bad this team has been at getting runners on in these situations.
Tyler Anderson will be probable for Seattle, and his season has been complicated. He did just make it through 4.1 innings against the Red Sox relatively unscathed, but he also allowed seven earned runs over 10.2 innings prior to that point. His strikeout numbers remain in a crater, and his 4.25 x ERA leaves a lot to be desired. He is nothing more than an average pitcher at this point who is an expert in limiting walks.
We’ve got the Oakland A’s on the other side of this matchup, who has really turned it on with five wins in a row over the last week. While the wins came over the Royals and Angels — two teams that won’t be in the postseason — they were impressive nonetheless.
Oakland owns a 117 wRC+ over the last seven days, which ranks 12th among big-league clubs, and it has backed that up with a .266 batting average and a ridiculous 13.1% walk rate, which is the best in baseball over that span. What’s more, the A’s have only struck out in 15.9% of plate appearances, demonstrating excellent plate discipline.
Without many strikeouts, pitchers are forced to rely on soft contact against the A’s, which is not something that’s been very possible. The Athletics’ 39% hard-hit rate in the last week grades out as an above-average one, and would seem to reiterate the fact that these results are worth reading into.
On the hill will be Sean Manaea, who has had a roller-coaster season to this point and enters with a 3.95 ERA and 3.17 xERA. His hard-hit rate is north of 42% for a second straight year, but he has brought his strikeout rate over 26%. So, while he’s still giving up rockets, he’s at least making it a bit more palatable with the whiffs.
Any way you slice it, the A’s have the upper hand here. They have the hotter offense, the better pitcher, and they’re also great against lefties, with the eighth-best wRC+ in that category. With a decided upper hand, I have no issues laying the run line here considering the Mariners’ difficulties with lefties all year long.
MLB Pick: A’s –1.5 +107 with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.