Seattle Mariners vs New York Yankees Predictions, Odds, Picks

• Key series in Wild Card race
• Will new faces on the Yankees be enough to make the postseason?
• X-factors to watch on both sides

Seattle Mariners vs New York Yankees Odds

Odds presented by: DraftKings Sportsbook

Trends to Watch

• Mariners are 9-3 in their last 12 Thursday games
• Mariners are 20-8 in their last 28 vs. a team with a winning record
• Over is 5-1 in Mariners last 6 on grass
• Over is 4-1 in Mariners last 5 vs. a team with a winning record
• Over is 6-2 in Mariners last 8 overall
• Yankees are 8-1 in last nine head-to-head matchups at home
• Under is 11-4-1 in the last 16 meetings in New York
• Yankees are 5-1 in their last 6 home games vs. a left-handed starter
• Yankees are 4-1 in their last 5 overall
• Yankees are 2-5 in their last 7 Thursday games
• Under is 15-5-1 in Yankees last 21 overall

Seattle Mariners vs New York Yankees Predictions and Picks

The weekend series with wild card implications starts tonight and it’s a big one for both sides. The Yankees made some moves and are looking to prove their run to October starts now. The Mariners — after trading their closer — are trying to prove their push for the playoffs is for real. Is it? Maybe, but with a struggling lefty on the mound, it’s not safe to back them monetarily. We like the Yankees with the run spread.

Pick:

Yankees -1.5 (-105)

Garcia’s 2021 record: (41-40-2)

How to Watch Seattle Mariners vs New York Yankees

Key Series in AL Wild Card Race

Few people expected the Yankees or the Mariners to be in the Wild Card race this year — but for very different reasons.

The Yankees came into the season as the American League favorite while the Mariners were picked to finish right in the middle of the division.

Yet somehow, with less than two months remaining in the season, New York and Seattle are just 1.5 games apart and both find themselves just a few games back of Oakland for the final playoff spot in the American League.

The Yankees took last night’s contest 10-3 over Baltimore while the Mariners dropped a 5-4 game to Tampa.

With a depleted pitching rotation, the Yankees will send 26-year-old lefty Nestor Cortes onto the mound. He’s appeared in 11 games this season including three starts and has been very good the whole time — a 1.93 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 39 strikeouts in 32.2 innings.

The Mariners will counter with left-handed journeyman Tyler Anderson. Anderson has struggled this year — he’s 5-8 overall with a 4.31 ERA and 1.20 WHIP across 19 starts.

That said, he was trending up in the month of July.  He went 2-0 last month, posing a 3.04 ERA by throwing more than five innings in every game and never gave up more than three runs in a start.

The Gallo and Rizzo Affect

There’s a few teams in every sport. IN baseball it’s the Yankees and Dodgers. Those are the teams, that no matter what, you can bank on spending in a big way just about every year.

Well, the Bronx bombers took that to the next level this year, adding two monster left-handed bats in Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo. The question now is how will the Yankees work them into the lineup and how effective will they be?

Rizzo has started off hot with the Yankees — in six games he is hittin g.400 (8-of-20) with three home runs and six RBIs, one in each game.

Gallo on the other hand has struggled with his new team. The power-hitting outfielder is just 2-of-23 (both doubles) with two walks and 10 strikeouts in his first six games in pinstripes. But even though he’s struggled, Gallo has been an elite power-hitter for a handful of years.

To add him and Rizzo to a lineup that already features guys like DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, makes a Yankees lineup that is already one of the more talented ones in all of baseball, that much better.

X-Factors to Watch

For New York, there can be plenty of home run hitting, but the production starts at the top of the order. LeMahieu is having a solid start to August after hitting just .241 with a .635 OPS in July.

LeMahieu is 5-for-9 the past two games with three doubles and five RBIs. We can expect another big game out of him against the lefty; LeMahieu is hitting .291 with a .757 OPS vs. southpaws.

For Seattle, third-baseman Abraham Toro has been on a tear the past week. He’s hitting .435 (10-of-23) with a homerun and the doubles over the past week and has reached base in 10 straight games.