The Mariners and Astros start a weekend series ahead of the All-Star break with each team eyeing playoff positioning.
Seattle will start George Kirby on Thursday night while the Astros recalled Ronel Blanco, who has been used all over the Houston pitching staff, both as a starter and a reliever in both the minors and big leagues.
However, the story of this game is both high powered offenses that are starting to realize its power. Can both teams keep up a hot stretch at the plate heading into this pivotal divisional series?
Here are the odds for the opening game.
Mariners vs. Astros odds, run line and total
Mariners vs. Astros prediction and pick
Both teams check in top 10 in OPS over the last 15 days, per MLB.com, with the Astros third and the Mariners eighth. I like each offense to keep it rolling at the plate with Houston's Kyle Tucker leading the way.
Tucker is hitting .405 over his last 10 games with three home runs and 13 runs batted in in the process. The slugger has picked up the slack while Yordan Alvarez is on the injured list and has the Houston offense performing at its ceiling.
While George Kirby presents a stiff test for the Astros, these are two teams that have fantastic discipline, and I'll side with the offense that is rolling at the plate. Kirby leads the big leagues in walk rate, but the Astros strikeout at a bottom five rate.
However, count on the Mariners' offense to keep pace. As noted above, this team humming at the plate, and the team now gets to match up against Blanco, who has been bouncing up and down all year and has poor underlying metrics. Blanco has a 4.73 ERA that is supported by a 5.51 xERA and 6.32 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP).
A big issue for Blanco is his inability to limit home runs. The right hander is allowing two homers per nine innings and the Mariners are ripe to tee off. Seattle has 21 home runs in the last 15 days, tied for fourth in the bigs.
With all that being said, I'm going over on Thursday night.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
