The Texas Rangers squeaked out a 2-1 series opening win in Seattle on Monday against the Mariners, can they make it two straight?
Texas has had to deal with injuries to start the year, but the team has still jumped out to a 21-13 start in 2023. The team will face division foe Mariners, who haven't had the same amount of success, just 17-18, after making the postseason last year.
Seattle will start emerging star, second year pro George Kirby, to face Andrew Heaney. Can Heaney match Kirby's excellence with a favorable matchup against the Mariners lineup?
We explain below with our best bet, but first let's look at the odds:
Rangers vs. Mariners odds, run line and total
Rangers vs. Mariners prediction and pick
Kirby has the pitching edge over Heaney, but don't sleep on the left handers ability to keep up with the Mariners righty. Seattle has the second lowest batting average against southpaws, hitting just .197 on the year against those type of pitchers.
Heaney is far from a quality starter, but this matchup suits him well in hopes of putting together one of his best outings of the season.
However, the loaded Rangers lineup is going to struggle against Kirby. He already has a complete game to his name this season and has a 3.11 ERA overall. He is walking a big league low amount of walks, only three compared to 26 strikeouts. Since struggling in his first start of the year, allowing four earned runs in less than five innings, Kirby has pitched at least six frames and allowed no more than three runs.
I think this is an under game with two pitchers that have noticeable edges.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
