Baseball Betting Picks: Baltimore Orioles at Seattle Mariners

Added on Jul 02, 2012 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

East meets West in American League action on Monday night as the Baltimore Orioles head to the ‘Jet City’ to take on the Seattle Mariners. The Orioles have a tenuous grasp on second place in the American League East, but they trail the red hot New York Yankees by six games. They’ve also got to deal with the third place Boston Red Sox who are only a half game back. Out West, the Mariners are in last place in the AL West trailing first place Texas by a whopping 16.5 games.

Baltimore Orioles at Seattle Mariners
July 2, 2012 7:10 PM Pacific

The Baltimore Orioles have been something of a surprise team this season. They’ve been among the most profitable teams in the sport all season (+13.6 units) but they’ve been struggling lately losing 7 of their last 10 games. Ironically, they haven’t been beat down by the brutal competition in the AL East but instead have struggled against the other divisions and in Interleague play.

This is a good spot for the Orioles to pick up a couple of victories. The Mariners have some decent young talent but overall have struggled for much of the season. They enter this matchup having lost 6 of their last 10 games and rank near the bottom in team batting average with a .234 mark. The Mariners have been especially bad at home–they’ve lost -8.9 units at Safeco Field. Baltimore has been a very good road investment this year–their 20-16 record translates to a +10.8 unit profit away from Camden Yards.

The biggest mismatch in this series could be pitching–Seattle has some decent starters but as a team their 4.05 ERA is less than impressive. Baltimore’s ERA isn’t much better but they’ve got the hitting to compensate for it and will start talented right hander Jason Hammel. Hammel struggled in his last start against the New York Yankees but he should rebound nicely in pitcher friendly Safeco Field facing the light hitting Mariners. Seattle will counter with Hishashi Iwakuma who’ll be making his first start of the year. Iwakuma has a 4.75 ERA in work out of the bullpen and it’s hard to see him making an immediate impact as he moves into the unfamiliar starting role.

Baltimore is a good team with an excellent manager in Buck Showalter and we expect them to sweep the Mariners in this early week series. We’ll be on the road team throughout.

Bet Balitmore Orioles (Hammel) -120 over Seattle Mariners (Iwakuma)