The Seattle Mariners will take on the New York Yankees for the fifth time in a week and a half on Tuesday night. The Mariners won two of the first three games in New York last week and now the Yankees stormed back with a win in Seattle last night. Gerrit Cole will look for some redemption against Luis Castillo after these two starters went head-to-head in a game last week.
Gerrit Cole seriously struggled last week as he allowed three home runs in the first inning to the Mariners. The Yankees were never able to mount anything after that as Luis Castillo was dominant in his debut. He will be making his home debut with the Mariners tonight which is weird. I have to imagine there haven’t been many team debuts on both the road and at home against the same team. Luis Castillo should be ready for the moment though, he has always succeeded in big games as we saw in his first game against the Yankees. He pitched 6.2 innings and allowed three earned runs on just two hits. He also faced the Yankees two turns in the rotation ago and pitched seven innings while allowing just two hits and one earned run. Castillo has now pitched six straight quality starts and he has really hit his stride after starting the season on the IL.
These two bullpens have been trending in completely opposite directions. The Yankees had the best bullpen in the league for such a long time, but injuries have crushed them. They lost Chad Green and Michael King for the season due to injuries. They added Scott Effross at the trade deadline along with Lou Trivino but they aren’t the studs that Green and King were. They are ranked just 21st in the league in bullpen ERA in the last 30 days while the Mariners are ranked 9th .
These teams have played four games against each other so far this season and they have split those four games going 2-2. Everything points towards a toss up for me and with the Mariners as underdogs, I have to take the value on the money line at home. T-Mobile Park was filled to the brim last night and I can only imagine it would be similar with everyone wanting to watch their new ace in Luis Castillo. Take the Mariners on the money line.
John's BOTD: Mariners ML | +118 at FanDuel
