Mariners vs. Angels Betting Line – April 15

Carrie Stroup here with your Mariners vs. Angels betting line for Wednesday night.

Sportsbook.ag Line: Los Angeles -131, Seattle +121, Total: 7.5                

Two of the most talented teams in the league go head-to-head as the Seattle Mariners look to avoid a sweep against the Los Angeles Dodgers on the road.

The Mariners have not gotten off to the start that they were looking to and with the loss against the Dodgers on Tuesday have now lost two of the first three series’ of the year. Recently it has been the pitching that is getting crushed with opponents scoring 35 runs over the past five games while putting up double-digit hits each time. They nearly were able to pull out a nice win against this L.A. team on Tuesday when they were up 5-4 going into the ninth inning behind 10 hits, but gave up the lead when Fernando Rodney blew the save. With a 2-for-5 game, 2B Robinson Cano (.176) has finally started to come around and has continued to show power with four of his six hits going for extra bases.

The Dodgers have been playing some solid baseball as they are being backed by a great offensive game which has scored at least six runs in five of their first nine contests. They continued to show a resilient offense on Tuesday in their come-from-behind victory with 12 hits and a walk-off, bases loaded single by Howie Kendrick (.344). While Kendrick has been phenomenal, it is 1B Adrian Gonzalez (.548) that has been the catalyst of the lineup and he already has five doubles, five homers and eight RBIs.

The pitching matchup for this one will peg RHP Taijuan Walker (0-1, 24.30 ERA) of Seattle against LHP Brett Anderson (0-0, 4.50) for the host Dodgers. So far the Mariners haven’t been too great when on the road with a 2-3 record as Los Angeles is 4-1 so far in their home stadium.

The trends show that Seattle is 48-38 (.558) in all road games since the start of last year while the Dodgers are 78-53 (.595) as a favorite of -125 to -175 since the beginning of 2013. The injury report has SS Chris Taylor (Wrist) out for the visiting club while OF Yasiel Puig (Hamstring) is listed as questionable for Los Angeles.                                              

Walker is one of the most promising young starters in the league and has shown some amazing talent in all levels of the minors. He was dealing with injuries last year and wasn’t able to get much experience at the major league level, pitching in just eight games (5 starts) with a solid 2.61 ERA as he walked too many batters (4.3 BB/9). Walker did not get off to a good start this year and in his first outing was roughed up for nine runs on nine hits in just 3.1 innings against the Athletics. He has not faced this team yet in his young career and will certainly be running into some tough offensive players with 1B Adrian Gonzalez (.548), 2B Howie Kendrick (.344) and 3B Alex Guerrero (.417) all on a tear.

The Mariners’ bullpen hasn’t been too bad so far, going 2-2 with a 3.72 ERA (1.52 WHIP) and have saved 3-of-5 games. Fernando Rodney (16.20 ERA, 2 saves) failed to get the save on Tuesday and has given up six runs in his last two outings (1.1 IP).                                                                  

Anderson was looking to have a promising career before dealing with a string of hard injuries and he has a career 3.74 ERA as he posted a solid 7.0 K/9 compared to just 2.4 BB/9. The injuries have caused him to have a mere 19 starts over the past three seasons with both the Athletics and Rockies before joining the Dodgers on a one-year deal. His first start of the year was promising as he put up a quality start with three runs allowed on five hits over six innings while striking out four (1 walk). He has met with this Mariners team plenty when he was a member of Oakland and has gone 7-4 (7-7 team record) with a 1.83 ERA (1.13 WHIP) as he last faced them in 2013, going seven strong innings of two-run, four-hit baseball in which his team lost 2-0. OF Nelson Cruz (1-for-10) and 2B Robinson Cano (4-for-15) have each hit a homer off of Anderson with a combined six RBIs as OF Austin Jackson is 1-for-10 with two strikeouts in the matchup.

The Los Angeles bullpen has pitched to a 3-2 record with a 3.24 ERA (1.20 WHIP) as they’ve successfully saved 3-of-4 contests. Chris Hatcher (16.88 ERA, 1 save) has not done too well as the interim closer and has allowed seven runs (5 ER) in just 2.2 innings of work.

- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter