September 20th, 2016 Betting Tips: MLB

With the NFL season starting up we’re reminded of just how intense that 16 game schedule is. Every game matters and a couple of early losses can really cost you at the end of the season. This is why the baseball races are really feeling tight right now as there is basically just a football season’s worth of games remaining. The AL East battle is tight with the Orioles, Jays and Red Sox all currently in playoff position fighting for that AL East crown and getting to skip the one-game Wild Card. The Tigers, Mariners and Astros are right behind them hoping to scoop up one of the AL Wild Card spots and things are just really tight right now.

Last night we saw the Jays defeat the Mariners in Seattle which gives them a comfortable 2.5 game lead over the Tigers and three game lead over the Mariners and Astros. That’s a big deficit to make up in just 14 days, but anything can happen in a small sample size like that. The Seattle-Toronto series continues tonight.

MLB Betting Tips:

The Red Sox and Orioles continue their series tonight and the line is pretty baffling. The Red Sox are a big underdog despite facing Kevin Gausman. He shut out the Red Sox last time out, but in his other two starts against them this season they tagged him for 11 runs. Gausman has looked good of late, but this is the best offense in the league and they have owned him in the past. They go against Eduardo Rodriguez who has looked better as of late. The real issue here is the Orioles play against left handers as they have really struggled with them this year, ranking 27th in the league in OPS. That’s a huge jump for the team who leads the MLB in homeruns this season. The Red Sox +140 have been hot lately and they should get it done tonight.

Detroit finds themselves in a good position to move closer to a Wild Card berth as they face the lowly Twins tonight. The only problem is the pitching match-up. These teams faced each other in Detroit last week and had interesting results. Matt Boyd went against the Twins and gave up seven runs in just 3 2/3 innings. While Hector Santiago shut the Tigers down with just one earned run allowed in 5 2/3s. With the way both of these results and the way both pitchers are trending, the Twins +113 are a solid play tonight.

Probably the best play on the board tonight is the Astros -123 at Oakland. The Athletics are not a good team while Joe Musgrave is one of the top Astros pitching prospects and has improved in every start. This is must win time for the Astros and Oakland is just waiting for the season to be over.

Last night’s Jays-Mariners game was one of the weirdest of the season for Seattle. Marco Estrada threw a no-hitter for the first six innings, Taijuan Walker looked amazing in the first inning until he took a ball off his hand, the Mariners hit about 10 balls to the warning track, there were more Jays fans than Mariners fans and a bunch of other weird stuff. The Mariners have to be disappointed with their offense and I think they’ll continue to be disappointed tonight against JA Happ who has been great this season. The Mariners send Hisashi Iwakuma who has been their best starter and I expect another tight, playoff type atmosphere tonight and this one should go under 8 runs.