{"id":15960,"date":"2011-06-02T16:56:31","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T21:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15960"},"modified":"2011-06-02T16:56:31","modified_gmt":"2011-06-02T21:56:31","slug":"west-coast-trip-game-1-of-3-game-set-between-tampa-bay-and-seattle-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/west-coast-trip-game-1-of-3-game-set-between-tampa-bay-and-seattle-betting-preview-15960\/","title":{"rendered":"West Coast Trip: Game 1 of 3 Game Set Between Tampa Bay and Seattle – Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Rays AT Seattle Mariners<\/strong>
\nJune 2nd, 2011 at 10:10 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 SEA -130, TAM +110<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 SEA -120, TAM +100<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 6.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total: 6.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 TAM- James Shields; SEA- Felix Hernandez<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
King Felix's ERA is north of 3.00 for the first time since 2008<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seattle has been winning a lot, but not by a lot…Their pitching has picked up and they expect more of the same when they send staff ace Felix Hernandez to the mound tonight.<\/p>\n

The Mariners are now 1 game over .500 thanks to winning 12 of their last 16 games while the starting pitchers have compiled a 2.20 ERA and the bullpen has been even more impressive with a 0.88 ERA.\u00a0 In games decided by one run, the Mariners are 13-10 this season.<\/p>\n

Seattle manager Eric Wedge realizes the importance of being able to win tight games.\u00a0 \u201cEvery game we are playing is tight,\u201d manager Eric Wedge said. \u201cOur starters have done a great job, bullpen has done a great job. Every now and again you\u2019re going to get snake-bit, but I can\u2019t say enough about the job they are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Felix Hernandez has been good this year, with a 5-4 record and a 3.19 ERA, but he’s been great at home where he is 2-0 a 1.42 ERA, in six starts — all of which were Seattle victories.\u00a0 He’s not pitching at the level he was last year when he won the Cy Young last year with a 2.27 ERA.\u00a0 Even Baseball Prospectus predicted a fall off, with a PECOTA projection of 2.64 for the season.\u00a0 That number is still attainable and within reach, especially if Hernandez continues to punish opponents at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to throw a close game because I know the guys are going to score,\u201d Hernandez told the team\u2019s official website. \u201cWe\u2019re over .500 and that\u2019s awesome. We\u2019re together, we\u2019re doing a great job and we\u2019re picking each other up.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Shields of Tampa Bay has been now slouch either, though, as he is tied with Hernandez for the AL lead in strikeouts with 81.\u00a0 His ERA is even better than Hernandez’ at 2.15, and he has won 5 of his 8 decisions.\u00a0 Over his last 23 innings and 3 starts, he has recorded a 2.35 ERA and 30 Ks, but only won 1 of the 3 decisions due to the fact that Tampa produced an average of 2.33 runs per game in those starts.\u00a0 He got off to a rough start Saturday, giving up 3 runs in the first 2 innings, but he turned around to shut the Indians down for the next five innings, as he picked up a quality start, despite recording a loss.<\/p>\n

Shields expects a tough pitchers duel tonight in a game with a low total set of 6.5.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve faced him a bunch of times in the past, and it\u2019s kind of a battle,\u201d Shields told the Rays\u2019 official website. \u201cHe is pitching really, really well right now, and I\u2019m going to go out there and pitch my game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Tampa bay is 4-8 SU in their last 12 games and the Rays are 12-6 SU in their last 18 on the road.\u00a0 The Rays are 1-5 SU in their last 6 on the road and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 6 against the Seattle Mariners.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 4-1 SU in their last 5 against the Mariners and the Rays are 4-1 SU in their last 5 games on the road in Seattle.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER In 4 of Tampa Bay’s last 6 games on the road in Seattle.<\/p>\n

Seattle is 11-3 SU in their last 14 games and the Mariners are 6-2 SU in their last 8 games at home.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 6 games against the Rays and the Mariners are 1-4\u00a0 SU in their last 5 against the Rays.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER In 4 of the Mariners’ last 6 games at home against the Tampa Bay Rays and the Mariners are 1-4 SU in their last 5 at home against Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s game should be pretty low scoring, which makes both betting the total or the moneyline a risky proposition with such a slim margin for error.\u00a0 Both Hernandez and Shields are top notch pitchers and one of them may even record a shutout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Rays AT Seattle Mariners June 2nd, 2011 at 10:10 PM EST Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 SEA -130, TAM +110 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 SEA -120, TAM +100 Opening Total:\u00a0 6.5 Current Total: 6.5 SP:\u00a0 TAM- James Shields; SEA- Felix Hernandez Seattle has been winning a lot, but not by a lot…Their pitching has picked up and they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[1511,86,220,150],"class_list":["post-15960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-felix-hernandez","tag-james-shields","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15960"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15962,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15960\/revisions\/15962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}