Seattle Mariners (37-41) vs Oakland Athletics (25-53)
Saturday, July 02, 2022 at 4:10 pm
I don’t do many first 5 inning plays here, but I love this play on Saturday. Paul Blackburn’s arguably been Oakland’s best pitcher this season, going 6-3 with a 3.12 ERA, but his road splits are outstanding, going 5-0 with a 1.44 ERA in nine starts, and in those nine starts for Blacburn on the road, the A’s are 9-0 on the ML in the first 5. That includes a first 5 win over the mighty Yankees last time out. We’ve already seen in this series Seattle’s ability to stumble offensively and given that Blackburn’s allowed two runs or less in eight of his nine road starts and had shutouts in five of those nine, I think he can guide the A’s to another win in the first 5 on Saturday at some nice plus money. George Kirby goes for the Mariners here, and Kirby’s been alright, but all of the value is on Oakland here.
Chris’s Pick First 5 Innings - Oakland A's ML: +138
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg