Cleveland Guardians vs. Seattle Mariners August 27 Betting Odds & Analysis

After dropping the first two games of the series, the Cleveland Guardians (66-58) will look to get back on track Saturday as they take on the Seattle Mariners (69-57). The Mariners will host this one at T-Mobile Park, with the first pitch scheduled for 10:10 pm ET.

In Friday night’s game, the two teams battled it out into extra innings, but the Mariners eventually prevailed 3-2 in the 11th inning. 

Offensively, the Mariners had eight hits, but it was a Mitch Haniger RBI single in the 11th that was the difference. Both Haniger and Carlos Santana had two hits apiece.

The Guardians’ offense had nine hits, with Amed Rosario and Austin Hedges having two hits apiece. The big problem for Cleveland was the 25 runners left on base throughout the game.

Betting Odds

The Mariners are the favorites playing at home Saturday. They are -184 to win while the Guardians’ moneyline sits at +154. The runline features Cleveland +1.5 (-142), and the over/under for total runs is seven.

Bet on the Guardians tonight with betJACK! Sign up to get started here.

Pitching Matchup

The Guardians will turn to righty Zach Plesac to take the ball Saturday. In 22 games, he is 2-11 with a 4.43 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, and he has 93 strikeouts in 120 innings. In his last start, Plesac took the loss after giving up four runs on nine hits in 5.1 innings to the Tigers.

Seattle will counter with righty Luis Castillo. Acquired from the Reds at the trade deadline, Castillo is 5-5 in 18 starts this season with a 2.93 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and he has 119 strikeouts in 110.2 innings.

Guardians Don’t Want To See AL Central Lead Slip

At 66-58, the Cleveland Guardians currently sit atop the AL Central, three games ahead of the Minnesota Twins and four ahead of the Chicago White Sox. Having gone just 5-5 over their last ten, including two straight losses, Cleveland will aim to get back into the win column Saturday and avoid letting the other two teams cut into the divisional deficit anymore.

Keep an eye on both Amed Rosario and Jose Ramirez in Saturday’s game. Against Luis Castillo, Rosario is hitting .583 in 12 at bats with a home run and three runs batted in. For Ramirez, he is hitting .333 in 12 at bats with two home runs and five runs batted in.

Cleveland’s best hitter against righties this season has been Ramirez. In 345 at bats versus righties, he is hitting .293/.360/.565 with 19 home runs and 82 runs batted in.

Mariners Fighting For A Playoff Spot

The last time that the Seattle Mariners were in the playoffs was 2001, the longest drought of any MLB team. Trying to break that streak this year, Seattle seems on the verge of making it as we head down the stretch.

While they sit 11.5 games back of the Astros in the AL West, they currently hold one of the three Wild Card spots. Still, with the Baltimore Orioles just 2.5 games back in the Wild Card race for the last spot, Seattle knows every win is crucial.

On Saturday, they will look to their biggest trade deadline acquisition to secure a series win. Since joining the Mariners, Castillo is 1-1 in four games with a 3.16 ERA.

Julio Rodriguez is the favorite to win the AL Rookie of the Year award (-450), and the team recently rewarded him with a massive contract extension. In 424 at bats, he is hitting .267/.326/.467 with 20 home runs, 64 runs batted in, 64 runs scored, and 23 stolen bases.

Plesac Needs To Come Up Big

Obviously, with Triston McKenzie and Shane Bieber starting the first two games of the series, the Guardians would have loved to have taken at least one, if not both, of those games. Unfortunately, following back-to-back losses, it is now up to Zach Plesac to stop the losing skid.

Plesac will also look to right the ship for the Guardians when playing at T-Mobile Park. The Guardians are winless in their last five games there.

Plesac is obviously capable of holding the Mariners’ offense in check, but with Luis Castillo opposing him, he won’t have much room for error. The Guardians will likely hope for a low-scoring contest and a better outcome than the first two games.