by Chuck Sommers
Saturday, Aug 21, 2021
Game time: 2:10 p.m. ET
Venue: Minute Maid Park, Houston, TX
Where to watch: ROOTNW, AT&T SportsNet-SW
Season-to-date (entering Saturday)
Mariners: 66-57 (3rd place, AL West)
Astros: 72-50 (1st place, AL West)
Recent form
Mariners: 7-3 in last 10
Astros: 6-4 in last 10
Projected lineup
Mariners:
J.P. Crawford (L) SS
Mitch Haniger (R) RF
Kyle Seager (L) 3B
Ty France (R) 1B
Abraham Toro (S) 2B
Jake Fraley (L) LF
Luis Torrens (R) DH
Jarred Kelenic (L) CF
Cal Raleigh (S) C
Astros:
Jose Altuve (R) 2B
Michael Brantley (L) LF
Carlos Correa (R) SS
Yordan Alvarez (L) DH
Yuli Gurriel (R) 1B
Aledmys Diaz (R) 3B
Chas McCormick (R) RF
Jake Meyers (R) CF
Martin Maldonado (R) C
Probable starting pitchers: Tyler Anderson (SEA) vs. Framber Valdez (HOU)
Odds at USA Sportsbooks
DraftKings: Astros -180, Mariners +155
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Mariners - Astros preview
The Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners will wrap up their three-game series on Sunday at Minute Maid Park, where the home team is trying to find any separation in the division standings.
The Astros took the first game of this series on Friday with a dominant 12-3 victory that saw Houston score at least two runs each through the first five innings. Yordan Alvarez drove the offense with a 2-for-5 night with four RBI, including a two-run home run.
Lance McCullers Jr. didn’t need to do much given how quickly Houston ran away with this game. He still gave the Astros six solid innings of work and had eight strikeouts to improve to 10-4 on the year.
It was a solid start to begin the three-game set for the leaders of the American League West, who entered Saturday with a 2.5-game lead over the Oakland Athletics for first place. The A’s got a huge victory against the San Francisco Giants in the first game of their three-game series to stay the course.
Fresh off a three-game sweep against the Texas Rangers this week, the Mariners traveled following an extra-innings series finale and ran into a buzzsaw. Yusei Kikuchi only lasted 2.2 innings, allowed seven earned runs and gave up three home runs.
Kyle Seager blasted his 28th home run of the season, and Ty France homered for the second consecutive game. That was pretty much the night in the nutshell for Seattle.
The Mariners only gained minimal ground from the sweep of the Rangers, but fell back to 6.5 games of the Astros for first place and fell to a four-game deficit in the AL Wild Card race with the aforementioned Athletics.
Betting trends
The over is 25-19 when the Astros are favored from -100 to -150.
When an underdog, the over is 50-40 in Mariners games.
Prediction
The Mariners are in that weird territory where they could rip off an 8-game winning streak at any point, or just hover around the .500 mark for the remainder of the season. And surprisingly, the Astros are still not that type of team that the books should take seriously. Seattle is destined to take at least one of these games, and Sunday seems like a good time for it. Mariners win 8-6.
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Chuck Sommers
About the Author:
Chuck Sommers has camped outside of sportsbooks since he can remember, learning the tricks and nuances of the trade. He still has nightmares of betting $5,000 on the Raiders in the Tuck Rule game but has since turned that to 25 years of veteran handicapping greatness. You can find him mostly in the shadows at the Red Rock or Aliante casinos wondering if the over is cashing on any given Sunday.
