Houston Astros at Seattle Mariners Betting Preview

Sunday afternoon features the rubber match between AL West rivals as the Houston Astros (5-3) and the Seattle Mariners (4-5). The Mariners will host this one at T-Mobile Park, with the first pitch scheduled for 4:10 pm ET.

After dropping the opener 11-1 on Friday, the Astros bounced back with a 4-0 win on Saturday. Justin Verlander was outstanding as he threw eight shutout innings despite making just his second start since Tommy John surgery.

Offensively, Jeremy Pena went three for three with two runs, while Martin Maldonado hit a two-run blast in the win.

The Mariners were only able to manage three hits in the loss, with two of the three coming from first baseman Ty France. On the mound, Chris Flexen had a quality start, going six innings and allowing just three runs, but the offense couldn’t get him enough offense to make it stand up.

The Astros are the slight favorites in this one despite playing on the road. They are -130 to win while the Mariners’ moneyline sits at +110. The spread features Seattle +1.5 (-156), and the over/under for total runs is eight.

Pitching Matchup

The Astros will turn to righty Jose Urquidy (1-0, 1.80 ERA) in this one. In his first start of the season, he went five innings against the Angels, giving up just four hits and a single run.

Seattle will counter with 23-year-old righty Matt Brash. Making just the second start of his career, Brash went 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on four hits against the White Sox in his debut.

Astros Look To Stay Strong Against Division

Stemming back to last season, the Astros have fared pretty well against both their league and their division. Against the AL West, they are 6-2 in their last eight games, and in the American League, they are 7-2 in their last nine. On Sunday, they will try to keep both of those trends going while also picking up a series win.

Unfortunately for Astros’ fans, they have been hit by the injury bug a bit. Yordan Alvarez was put on the injured list for COVID-19 protocols, while Ryan Pressley was added due to knee inflammation.

Despite the winning record, they are also waiting for the offense to get going. Some of their biggest stars have struggled early on, including Jose Altuve (4 for 29), Kyle Tucker (4 for 31), Martin Maldonado (1 for 17), and Yuli Gurriel (4 for 20).

One player who continues to impress is rookie Jeremy Pena. After his three-hit performance Saturday, he is now hitting .345/.375/.621 with a home run, two runs batted in, and five runs scored.

Mariners Look To Find Consistency

This has not been a picture-perfect start to the season for Seattle. In fact, in their last seven games, they are just 2-5. Luckily, stemming back to last year, they are 12-4 in their last 16 games against teams in the division, and they hope to add another win to that trend against Houston Sunday.

Like Houston, the Mariners aren’t exactly tearing the cover off of the ball. Highly touted rookie Julio Rodriguez has really struggled, hitting just .107/.194/.143 in 28 at bats.

Despite hitting just .176, outfielder Mitch Haniger has gotten the long ball going early as he leads the team in both home runs (three) and runs batted in (seven). Unfortunately, Haniger will be out for the foreseeable future after testing positive for COVID-19.

Of note, the team has hit a bit better at home in recent trends. The over has hit in 10 of their last 14 games at T-Mobile Park, while it has also hit in four of their last five games against the Astros.

Take The Mariners +1.5

This has the making of a really interesting pitching matchup. Jose Urquidy may not be as well-known as some of his rotation teammates, but he quietly has been really solid for Houston. On the same token, Matt Brash is an unheralded rookie who has a chance to make a major impact for the Mariners this season.

With the inconsistencies of both offenses, it is hard to bank on one of them blowing out the other. Just look at the last two games. In one, the Mariners roared to a 11-1 win, but in the next, they couldn’t find a run while Houston put up four.

With so much uncertainty, the safe bet is to take the runline. In this case, that means taking Seattle +1.5.