First Five Play For Tigers Against Mariners

Tigers vs. Mariners, 4:10 ET

Sometimes you run into bad luck. Sometimes I can see it coming and do try to shorten a game to just five innings of play for the bets, but other times I think the full game number is a bit more reasonable for me. Yesterday, the Padres and Phillies combined for three runs through five innings. The bullpens then allowed seven runs in the last four innings, hitting the over. The bet I made was void because of the pitching change from Taijuan Walker to Ranger Suarez, so maybe that was good luck. Either way, we look to avoid any collapses today in the Tigers vs. Mariners.

What are we going to do with the Detroit Tigers? They are nine games under .500 at this point in the season and for some reason that feels like they may be overperforming. They've already done their job in this series as they've won the first two games of the series and are sitting just five games back of first place in their division. For whatever reason it doesn't feel like they can just back up their bags and trade away players, but at the same time it doesn't feel like they should be optimistic they can win the division with the talent they have. A sweep today could go a long way towards helping them though. To try and get them to that sweep, Reese Olson takes the ball. Olson has been fine this season in limited appearances. This will be just his third road start and fourth appearance overall on the road. He sports a 3.09 ERA on the road, but that is still four earned over 11.2 innings.

The Tigers take on the Mariners looking for a sweep in Seattle. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

If the Tigers have questions about what to do in the coming weeks, I think the Mariners have even more. Seattle has some very talented players on their roster and they are hanging in there. But, hanging in there doesn't get you into the playoffs. They lost one of their Aces, and for whatever reason, they just aren't quite consistent enough right now to make a difference. At this moment they sit under .500 and are eight games back in the division. That isn't insurmountable, but you need to step up soon and get the team rallied if you want to make a push for the division or the (probably) third Wild Card spot. Today they can start that push with Bryce Miller. The righty takes the ball for the Mariners and he has been solid at home with a 3.27 ERA. He did face the Tigers earlier in the year and allowed just three hits and no runs over seven strong innings.

I think this game is probably going to go under the total, but at just eight, there isn't much room for error there. Instead, I'll take the run line through the first five innings of the game and call it a day. I think that the Mariners will be up by a run after five and they should probably win the game by a couple of runs as well. I prefer the first five though at -115.

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