Baseball Betting: Mariners vs. Angels Odds & Pick: September 10th 2009

Seattle Mariners vs. Los Angeles Angels u8.0 (-110 odds)
Thu September 10th 10:05p
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John Lackey looks to give the Angels and their ailing offense a boost tonight in the finale of their three-game series against the Mariners and Ryan Rowland-Smith.

The two teams combined for nine runs last night meaning most betters pushed. But that is one of the rare games recently in which these two teams have even flirted with topping the total.
The Angels got four runs in the first inning in Wednesday night’s game and two in the eighth on a Juan Rivera homerun but in between were a lot of goose eggs something the Angels have seen a lot of lately. The big problem has been hitting with runners in scoring position. Anaheim was just 1-11 in Monday’s extra inning victory over the M’s and just 2-10 last night. The hallmark of Mike Scoscia coached teams is to get the key hit and if need be play the station-to-station game. That hasn’t been happening lately and neither has the long ball save for Rivera’s blast.

Despite the offensive funk the Angels are now 5-2 in their last seven games thanks to a starting staff that has dominated over that stretch posting a ridiculous, and I mean that in a good way, a 1.55 ERA.

Seattle continues to scratch for runs. They’ve managed just 5 in their first two games of the series and with Lackey on the hill their offensive problems more than likely won’t improve tonight. Lackey is 9-7 on the year and has lowered his ERA to 3.74. He’s been especially tough over his last three starts going 2-1 with a 2.35 ERA and a WHIP of 1.09.

Ryan Rowland Smith might be one of the best young pitchers you’ve never heard of. In his ten starts, Rowland-Smith has a 3.88 ERA in 62 innings and over his last three outings his ERA is 3.22. He’s coming off a four-hitter in his last start against Oakland. He’s a big reason that Seattle has the 6th best pitching staff in baseball. The Mariners bullpen is solid as well, ranking 11th in MLB.

Overall Seattle is 39-27-1 to the UNDER on the road this season and the UNDER is 7-2 in the last nine series meetings.
The key to a low scoring game is simple. If we see lots of Lackey and very little of the Angels bullpen, then that’s a good thing. If Smith is on his game we figure to see another 4-3 type game and that’s plenty good for me.