MLB Pick: Seattle Mariners at Oakland A’s 8/31/18

Time: 10:05 PM ET
Where: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA
Listed Pitchers: Mike Leake (Sea) & Mike Fiers (Oak)
TV: ROOT Northwest, NBCS California
Moneyline: Mariners +130/A’s -140
Over/Under: 8

A late-season A’s-Mariners game hasn’t meant much over the years, but it does right now, with both teams still in playoff contention. How are we playing Friday night’s meeting with our daily free MLB picks?

Friday’s MLB betting odds opened Oakland at around -150 over Seattle. The 5dimes reduced price overnight line was at around -135 with an over/under of 8 runs. Early betting action then pushed that line down at most sportsbooks about a dime, to around -140.

The A’s could also be found getting around +145 giving the run and a half on the MLB run line.

The Mariners grabbed the opener of this four-game series Thursday night 7-1. Seattle popped off with five runs in the first inning Thursday and cruised from there, cashing in as +120 dogs on the MLB dime line.

The victory halted a three-game losing streak for the Mariners, while Oakland, which has played such good ball for so long now, has lost three of its last four games.

At 80-55 overall the A’s trail first-place Houston by 2.5 games in the AL West, although they also own the second American League wild-card spot.

At 75-59 overall Seattle sits seven games back in that AL West race and 4.5 games behind Oakland in that wild-card battle.

The M’s actually lead the season series with the A’s eight games to four.

On the personnel front Mariners SS Jean Segura (.317, 20 SB) missed Thursday’s game with a sore leg and he’s iffy for Friday.

Friday’s Brewers at Nationals Pick

Friday’s Starting Arms

Fiers (10-6, 3.15) by our strict standards, is only 9/25 on quality starts this season, but he’s just three outs away from being 4/4 since coming over to the A’s in that trade with Detroit a month ago. Last Sunday he held Minnesota to one run and five hits through 5 2/3 innings, and over his last four starts he’s allowed just four runs and 16 hits through 24 innings. On the season the Tigers, a team that’s games under .500 at the moment, went 13-8 with Fiers, while Oakland is 4-0. So Fiers ranks in the top half-dozen on the starting pitchers money chart for this season. Also, unders are 13-10 when Fiers hits the hill this year.

In two starts previously this season against the Mariners, once for Detroit and once for the A’s, Fiers allowed six runs and 12 hits, including three dingers, through 11 innings. His teams split those two games.

Leake (8-8, 4.03) is 14/26 on quality starts this year, and three for his last four. Last Sunday he gave up five runs through six innings against Arizona, but in his three starts previous to that he allowed five runs through 20 2/3 innings. On the season Seattle is 17-9 with Leake, with overs going 14-12.

In three starts already this season against Oakland Leake gave up just five runs – four earned – and 15 hits through 20 2/3 innings. The Mariners won all three of those games.

Fiers is having the better season overall but Leake owns the better past performance against Friday’s opponent. For handicapping purposes we’re calling this pitching match-up a push.

Seattle owns a .257/.313/.419 batting average/OBP/slugging percentage split against right-handed pitching this season.

The A’s own a .250/.320/.438 split against RHP this year.

We’ll give Oakland a short edge with the sticks for Friday.

The Mariners bullpen owns a 3.93 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP.

The A’s pen owns a 3.28 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. But that unit has been busy as of late, working a total of 36 2/3 innings over Oakland’s last eight games.

Still, we’ll give the A’s a short edge in comparison of the bullpens.

Unders are 38-25 in games played at Oakland Coliseum this year, which are averaging just 7.7 total runs per, fourth-fewest among all ML ballparks.

Unders are 4-1 in Seattle’s last five games.

Unders are 7-3 in Oakland’s last 10 games.

Unders are 9-3 in Mariners-A’s games this season, as this series has skewed low-scoring.

We give Oakland two of our main baseball handicapping check-marks for this game, and we’re big fans of Fiers. We’re betting the A’s to even this series Friday night.