Baseball | Monday, May 8, 2023 9:37 AM

Seattle Mariners vs Texas Rangers Best Bet: Mariners in Texas for 3

IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

US Sports Expert

Seattle Mariners vs Texas Rangers Best Bet: Monday, May 8th

The Seattle Mariners play host to the Texas Rangers for the next three days, and both teams are playing fantastic baseball coming into the series. Our resident baseball expert Ej Garr has plans to get us paid before we get to the 6th inning because that’s just how he rolls! Let’s take it to the diamond and play ball!

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Seattle Mariners vs Texas Rangers Preview

May 9, 02:40 (UK time)

The #1 offense in baseball will take a trip to Seattle this week, as the Texas Rangers have been pounding out runs in droves, and they carry the AL West Division lead into the series with the Mariners. Both teams are in great form coming into the early week series in Arlington, as the Mariners have won six of their last seven games, and the Rangers have taken wins from six of their last eight games.

As I peruse the lines for this game, I am amazed that the Texas Rangers are considerable underdogs showing odds of 2.45 posted for this Monday affair. That is quite the line to jump on Texas to pick up a road win in Game 1 of this series but I expect early runs to hit the board in this game.

Logan Gilbert and Jon Gray are the probable starting pitchers for this game, and although they have both pitched quite well, they each carry a pedestrian 1 – 1 record into the series. Gilbert will be making his fifth road start of the campaign and his third in a row away from home on Monday, while Gray has seen four straight no-decisions hit his ledger.

Gilbert was last seen in Oakland getting bailed out of a 2 – 0 deficit that eventually saw the game go into extra innings, and the Mariners scored five runs in the extra stanza to come away with the win.

Gray struggled in his last start against Arizona, and he and Zach Gallen minded the mound, but neither was involved with the decision. The Rangers bailed out Gray after he gave up two home runs and four earned runs before he got out of the third inning, but the best offense in baseball came to his aid. Texas scored twice in the fifth inning and twice more in the sixth inning before adding a bonus run in the seventh that led to a Rangers win, 6 – 4.

The Texas offense pounded out 26 runs over the last two days against the Angels, but here they are as big underdogs on the road to start the series with the Mariners. I see the +1 with Texas listed at 1.96 on the handicap, but I expect no less than four runs to cross home plate before the end of the fifth inning.