Free Picks: Oakland Athletics vs. Seattle Mariners

The Oakland Athletics (56-43) hold a slim lead over the Seattle Mariners (52-46) in the American League West. Saturday night, the Mariners look to keep rolling against the A’s at home. Entering this game, the ariners have won 6 of their last 10 and have a solid 30-21 record at home this season. Chris Bassitt (10-3, 3.31 ERA) starts for Oakland, while Logan Gilbert (4-2, 3.50 ERA) gets the ball for Seattle.

A 3-run second inning provided 80 percent of Seattle’s offense Friday night, as the Mariners tallied 4 runs en route to a 4-3 victory over the Athletics.  

Saturday evening, the Mariners will look to keep rolling against Oakland. This season, the two clubs have split their 8 games with 4 wins apiece. 

What I love about this game is that both Seattle and Oakland have studs ready to throw. Chris Bassitt gets the ball for Oakland, while Logan Gilbert starts for the hometown M’s.  

Bassitt is 10-3 with a 3.31 ERA, while Gilbert is 4-2 with a 3.50 ERA. With similar statistics and ERAs, that will definitely impact total runs for this MLB prediction. 

With that being said, for this free MLB pick, I want to focus on Seattle’s total runs. 

The Mariners are a mediocre team on offense, but there are a few statistics that make me believe Seattle can do damage on Saturday. Away from Friday’s victory, Seattle has seen a ton of high-scoring games against the Athletics this season. 

In 8 games head-to-head, the Mariners have averaged 3.5 runs per game. That includes a game in which they scored 0 runs in a loss. Overall, Seattle has had no issue scoring against Oakland this season. 

Of course, Bassitt is a demon on the mound. But he still owns an ERA of 3.31. This means, if Bassitt pitches to his average, the Mariners will score at least 3 runs. 

Since July 16, the Mainers have had no trouble scoring. They tallied 6 runs against the Angles and 6 runs against the Rockies, to highlight some of their recent offensive performances. 

I’ll admit, the Mariners aren’t a terrorizing team at the dish, but I think they have enough juice to hit the over in team total runs.

• Seattle averages 4.11 runs per game this season.
• The Mariners average 3.80 runs per game at home. 
• Oakland allows 3.73 runs against on the road. 
• Bassitt has allowed 10 earned runs in last 3 starts.