San Diego Padres vs. Seattle Mariners Odds, Picks & Predictions: June 23rd 2009

Free MLB Picks: Seattle Mariners -133 odds
(Larry Ness MLB Predictions | Covers.com)

Seattle won the first two games at San Diego last week, before falling 4-3 in 10 innings on Thursday. The Mariners followed that series win by sweeping three games from last-place Arizona this past weekend in Seattle and now get set to host the struggling Padres again. Seattle is now back above .500 (35-34), climbing to within 1 1/2 games of the Angels and 2 1/2 games of the first-place Rangers in the AL West. As for the 30-38 Padres, they are 15 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West and their 9-23 road record is better than only the Nationals’ 8-24 mark. The Padres are a ML-worst 2-7 in interleague play and own a ML-worst .235 team batting average. Other than that, the Padres are “hitting on all cylinders.” The Padres will start Chad Gaudin, who is 2-6 with a 5.98 ERA this year and has yet to win in June. He’s 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA in four appearances (three starts), since winning 5-2 at Colorado on May 31. His road ERA is 6.87 and there is little reason to think he will have much success here, as Gaudin has lost his last three starts against the Mariners, posting a 5.00 ERA. The Mariners will go with Garrett Olson (2-1, 4.23 ERA), who did pitch two-thirds of an inning in relief just two days ago. The lefty allowed three ERs on two hits (both HRs) in six innings of last Wednesday’s 4-3 win at San Diego. Olson is 2-1 with a 4.76 ERA in five starts (Mariners are 2-3) and 0-0 with a 2.70 ERA in seven relief outings so far in 2009. I’ve never been a big fan of playing on pitchers being shuttled in and out of a rotation but the Padres are such a mess on the road plus in Gaudin, start a pitcher who looks to be “going nowhere.” Meanwhile, the Mariners are playing well and figure to take advantage of the sad-sack Padres fairly easily in this game and maybe the whole series. However, that’s getting ahead of myself. For tonight, play the Mariners.