The Seattle Mariners (9-11, 6-8 home) look to build off Friday night’s victory in the second game of its home series against the St. Louis Cardinals (8-12, 3-4 away). Seattle took the opener, 5-2, after coming back from an earlier 2-0 hole. The three-game series is the only time these two interleague franchises will face each other this season.
Saturday’s first pitch is at 9:40 p.m. EST inside T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Washington. Seattle is the betting favorite (-165 moneyline), and the over/under total is 7.5 runs.
What to Know – St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis hasn’t lived up to the preseason hype through the first 20 games of the season. The Cardinals have dropped three of their last four and have fallen four games below .500. St. Louis is already six games back of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central.
Looking to get the Cardinals back in the win column is right-hander Miles Mikolas (0-1, 8.10 ERA, 2.05 WHIP). The veteran starter is still searching for his first victory of the season. Mikolas looked sharp in his previous start, allowing two earned runs over 5.2 innings on seven hits, and two walks while striking out four batters.
Offensively, the Cardinals are fourth in the MLB batting .267 as a team while averaging 4.7 runs per game. The pitching staff for St. Louis is 20th in the majors with a 4.70 team earned run average.
Nolan Gorman leads the Cardinals in all major offensive categories with five home runs, 18 runs batted in, and a .300 batting average. Rookie Jordan Walker has had no issues adjusting to pitching the majors, with a pair of home runs and 11 RBIs.
What to Know – Seattle Mariners
The Mariners snapped a three-game losing streak with Friday’s victory and look to keep the good times rolling over the weekend. Seattle finds itself in fourth place in the AL West, trailing the Texas Rangers by 3.5 games.
Staff ace Luis Castillo (2-0, 0.73 ERA, 0.61 WHIP) tries to keep his impressive start to the season going on the hill. Castillo has surrendered only two runs over three starts this season, tossing a pair of shutouts. The 30-year-old is coming off his best outing of the year, where he threw 7.0 innings, scattering two hits, no walks, and tallying nine strikeouts.
Seattle sits 24th amongst league offenses with a .228 team batting average and scores 4.5 runs per game. The Mariners’ pitching staff is ninth in the MLB sporting a 3.56 team ERA.
Production on offense has come from all over the Mariners’ order, with six players already having 11 or more RBIs. Julio Rodriguez, Jarred Kelenic, and Teoscar Hernandez have four home runs apiece. Ty France and Eugene Suarez lead the team in RBIs with 13 each.
The Pick is In
Castillo is a solid pitcher but historically not this dominant. The Cardinals are better than their record shows, and the lineup is good enough to keep St. Louis in this one. St. Louis jumps out to an early lead and never looks back in this low-scoring matchup.
The Pick: St. Louis Cardinals ML
