Angels attempt to pin eighth straight loss on Mariners

Baseball Betting Lines

05/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The struggling Seattle Mariners will try to snap out of their rut tonight as they host the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the middle bout of a three-game set at Safeco Field.

After last night's 8-0 setback to the Angels, Seattle is now 0-7 on a current nine-game homestand. The Mariners have been outscored 40-9 over that span and are hitting just .169 during their longest slide since dropping 12 straight from September 11-22, 2008.

Felix Hernandez (2-3) had one of his worst starts as a professional last night, with the Mariners ace tying a career worst by allowing seven earned runs while lasting only 3 1/3 innings. He also matched a career worst by giving up three homers, all of which came in the fourth inning.

"You can look at his mechanics and they're a little bit out of whack, more than I've seen them in a long time," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said of Hernandez. "Especially [allowing] four walks and giving up the home runs. It's just uncharacteristic. The ballgame was over pretty quick with the eight runs up, especially the way [Seattle's] offense has been going."

Hernandez now has a three-start losing streak for the first time since a four- start stretch of defeats from April 27-May 13, 2008. In total, he gave up eight runs, five hits and walked four on Friday.

The Angels, meanwhile, watched Jered Weaver toss 7 1/3 shutout innings of two- hit ball to snap a seven-game slide. Weaver (4-1) held a no-hitter for 6 2/3 frames and walked three batters while fanning seven in the win. The lanky righty saw his season earned run average dip to 2.66 while improving to 9-3 lifetime versus the Mariners.

"I wasn't really worried about it," said Weaver of the no-hit bid. "I was just trying to limit the baserunners and just stick to my game plan."

Juan Rivera, Howie Kendrick and Ryan Budde all homered off Hernandez in the fourth inning, helping the Angels avoid what would have been the first eight- game losing streak since manager Mike Scioscia took over the team in 2000. Kendry Morales added a three-run double in the top of the first.

Joe Saunders hopes to receive the same kind of support tonight as he toes the rubber seeking to end a personal three-game slide. The left-hander is also looking to rebound from his worst performance of the season, when he allowed seven earned runs over just four innings of a 17-8 loss at Boston on Monday.

In his career against Seattle, Saunders has had great success, posting a 7-1 ledger with a 3.19 ERA in 10 lifetime starts. He is also a perfect 5-0 with a 2.55 ERA in six starts at Safeco.

For the Mariners, they will send Doug Fister to the hill and hope he can add to his surprising start. Fister has allowed just two runs in 16 innings over his last two outings, but failed to earn a decision in either. On Sunday, the right-hander tossed eight scoreless innings and allowed only three hits. The Mariners, however, came up short in a 3-1 verdict against Texas.

Fister made his lone career start against the Angels last season, picking up the victory after allowing just one run over 7 1/3 innings of work.

Los Angeles went 10-9 against the Mariners last season and has won four straight and six of the last eight matchups between the clubs. These two teams split 10 meetings at Safeco Field a season ago.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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