New York’s Michael Pineda has been dominant during day games and he gets the light-hitting Mariners in an afternoon tilt in the Bronx. It shapes up to be a good day for the pinstripes.
ODDS ANALYSIS
It’s hard to take the Seattle Mariners seriously and even more difficult to imagine they have a second half run in them with a historically bad offense. The M’s alternated wins and losses through the first 12 games of July and playing .500-ball is an improvement over what they did to that point. But even that isn’t good enough to get this team in position to think about a wild card. Seattle entered the All-Star break with a 21-21 road record but their .223 team batting average in those 42 games is even lower than their AL-worst overall mark of .236.
The Yankees should be a confident group entering the second half of the season with a 3.5-game lead in the AL East after closing the first half with wins in four of five. New York owns the best home record of any AL East team at 25-16 and won four of six at Yankee Stadium as part of a 7-3 run where they were in the black 3.71 units, to close the first half of the season. The Yankees cashed the under in each of Michael Pineda’s last three starts and the under is 4-1 in his last five outings.
PITCHING MATCHUP
Seattle’s Hisashi Iwakuma (1-1, 5.22 ERA) has had an injury-plagued start to 2015, but had his best outing of the season when he threw eight scoreless innings against the Angels on Saturday in his second game since coming off the disabled list. He allowed just three hits with six strikeouts and turned in his first quality start of the campaign.
Iwakuma is 1-1 with a 3.75 ERA in two career starts at Yankee Stadium and has surrendered three home runs in only 12 innings of work. He’s 1-2 with a 3.33 ERA in four career starts against the Yankees.
Michael Pineda (9-5, 3.64 ERA) has flashed dominant stuff in his past three starts allowing only four runs (three earned) with 24 strikeouts and one walk over 21.2 innings in that span. He shut down the Red Sox on July 10 giving up one run over 6.2 innings in a 5-1 win. He owns a sparkling 1.66 ERA in three starts since getting blown up by the Phillies on June 22.
Pineda faced his former club for the first time on June 1 allowing seven hits and two runs while fanning nine in a 7-2 win in Seattle. He’s been masterful during the day going 3-1 with a 2.03 ERA with 52 strikeouts in 40 innings over six starts.
QUOTE TO NOTE
“You can talk about our offense, but the offense last year was bad. But our bullpen was outstanding and we won games because of our bullpen. That’s been our biggest, in my opinion, the biggest disappointment to date, is right-handers we’ve had to shift in and out of our bullpen to try to bridge the gap to win games.” – Seattle manager Lloyd McClendon
LIVE BETTING or SITUATIONAL BETTING
Reports out of Seattle have the Mariners in discussions to acquire a catcher before the trade deadline. Several names have been mentioned with A.J. Pierzynski and Dioner Navarro being the most prevalent. It appears as though help will not come from the minors, at least not the Triple-A level. On Wednesday, the M’s released catcher Erik Kratz, who was in Tacoma after inking a minor league deal, and was considered a candidate to be promoted to the big club. Whatever the Mariners do, or don’t do, an upgrade is sorely needed with catching a sore spot offensively. Regular backstop Mike Zunino is sporting a .160 average along with a .223 on-base percentage in 81 games, though he does have nine home runs. His backup, Jesus Sucre, is hitting only .038 in 26 at-bats.
PROP TALK
Seattle’s Robinson Cano returns to Yankee Stadium for the second year since his departure from New York and enters the series swinging a hot bat. Dealing with a lingering stomach ailment, Cano got off to a brutal start and was hitting below .240 through the end of June, but a hot start to July has Mariners fans hopeful for a second half turnaround. Cano started the month with a four-hit game, falling a triple shy of the cycle, and hit .327 with a pair of home runs and nine RBIs through the first 12 games of the month. He went 3 for 12 with a double and three RBIs in last year’s three games in Yankee Stadium and could enjoy a return to the Bronx, where his career line is .311/.368/.536 in 404 games.
ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION
Even a hot Robinson Cano won’t be enough to overcome the Yankees in his second return to the Bronx. The Mariners have to be encouraged by Cano’s numbers in July, but his inability to hit and produce runs for most of the first half put the M’s in a deep hole. Facing former Mariner Michael Pineda, who’s been filthy over his last three starts, isn’t going to help the AL’s worst hitting club. Pineda has also been lights out during the day which makes the M’s task even more difficult.
New York 5, Seattle 2
The MLB lines for this contest will first be released by BookMaker Sportsbook. Since this game can be seen by anyone with a TV, BookMaker will have a multitude of wagering options available for it. Outside of the normal lines, you can gamble on real-time moneylines, player props and inning totals. Live betting is open during every commercial break!
Access live betting lines from your mobile device at BookMaker Sportsbook! You can wager on sporting events as they unfold on television with BookMaker’s live betting platform. Real-time spreads, totals, props and moneyline odds are all available by clicking here so start betting with BookMaker today! The ballgame pitting the Seattle Mariners versus the New York Yankees will commence Saturday, July 18, 2015, at 1:05 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium. You can watch the contest live on the MLB Network.
