M’s vs Rangers MLB Betting + Handicapping Picks
The much-anticipated regular season debut of Japanese pitching ace Yu Darvish will take place on Monday night at Arlington Ballpark when the Texas Rangers host the Seattle Mariners in game one of a four-game series.
Hector Noesi (R) (0-0, 0.00) vs. Yu Darvish (R) (0-0, 0.00)
Date/Time: Monday, April 09 – 8:05 PM EST
Venue: Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington, Texas
Broadcast: ROOT Sports (Seattle), Fox Sports Southwest (Texas)
LINE: 197, -211
TOTAL: 9
Seattle’s (3-1) off to a hot start, led by the speedy Chone Figgins, who ranked near the bottom of the American League last year with a .188 batting average, but finished 3-for-5 over the M’s first four games to improve to .412 (7-for-17) while helping the Rangers in his last outing to an 8-7 win over Oakland.
The Mariners come in to this contest with a .266 batting average and with both Texas and Los Angeles losing Saturday, hold an early one-game lead in the American League West.
Manager Eric Wedge will give the nod to youngster Hector Noesi, who although turning in a couple of respectable stand-in pitching performances during his rookie year with the New York Yankees, has only faced the Rangers one time, throwing just 1 2/3 scoreless innings last June 16 in his fifth major league game. He surrendered just one hit in that contest.
Meanwhile, the Rangers (2-1), who were 15-4 against the M’s in 2011, including a very good 8-1 home record while winning the last five meetings overall, will again be a team reliant on its pitching.
And after a superb opening day performance from veteran hurler Colby Lewis, followed up with another from Matt Harrison who pitched six complete shutout innings as the Rangers blanked the Chicago White Sox 5-0 on Sunday in Arlington. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
The Ranges have now surrendered just six runs to start the new year over three games.
They will aim to continue their pitching dominance when Darvish toes the rubber in this one.
Japan’s Pacific League ace has stymied the opposition’s bats, going 93-38 with a 1.99 ERA since beginning his pro career in 2005, striking out 276 in 232 innings last season in his native Japan, and fanning a whopping 11 Colorado Rockies’ batters over six innings in his final spring start on March 31.
But how will he do against the big leagues’ marquee sluggers?
Both teams have been faring well in series openers — Seattle has won the first game in six of its last seven series, while Texas won 37 of its last 53 series. Darvish has no doubt showed potential, and cruised through his spring game, but this will be his first real test.
Noesi on the other hand, has also not been tested as a true starter in the bigs, so this should be an interesting pitching matchup.
Matt’s Free Prediction: Texas- Since pitching is the unknown in this one, I have to go with the more solid line up of the Rangers here.
