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Tampa Bay Rays vs. Seattle Mariners
A pair of teams currently entrenched in their division’s respective races are set to go at it Thursday night when Felix Hernandez toes the bump for the Mariners in the series opener against James Shields and the Tampa Bay Rays.
After getting embarrassed in the series opener with the defending AL champion Texas Rangers on Memorial Day, the Rays battled back to win Game 2 by a 5-4 final count behind the efforts of rookie Alex Cobb and timely hitting late in the ball game. The win moved manager Joe Maddon’s squad to 29-25 on the year heading into the rubber match with the Rangers Thursday afternoon. The Rays were one of the best visiting teams in all of baseball a year ago (47-34 $864), and are well on their way towards ranking amongst the best on the road in 2011 as well already snagging 15 wins through 25 tries ($627). Unfortunately, Tampa’s only registered wins two of the L/8 times it opposed an AL West opponent.
Seattle tripped and stumbled its way to a pathetic 61-101 record that cost MLB bettors upwards of $3680 a year ago. Upper management made wholesale changes across the board, including at the managerial position, and so far, it’s paid off as the Mariners currently sit just a half-game in back of the Texas Rangers for the top spot in the AL West. At 28-26 heading into Wednesday’s matinee battle with Baltimore, the M’s rank out as the 7th best bet in all of baseball reeling in just short of $400 overall for their betting backers. The Mariners are 15-13 ($98) at Safeco Field to date winning each of their L/3 series played there.
Tampa Bay flat out dominated Seattle a year ago winning seven of the nine overall meetings; the ‘under’ went 6-2-1 in those match-ups. The Rays have won each of James Shields’ L/5 road starts and he’s 3-3 with a 2.80 ERA in nine career starts vs. the Mariners. Seattle is 21-7 in Felix Hernandez’ L/28 home starts and 10-1 their L/11 vs. right-handed pitchers; the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner has won each of his six career home starts vs. TBY.
PICK: Tampa/Seattle UNDER
