The Daily Sweat: Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners are MLB's surprising hottest teams
The two hottest teams in Major League Baseball are of two of the teams you’d least expect: the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners.
The Orioles have lost more than 100 games in each of the last three full MLB seasons, including going 52-110 last year. And to start the 2022 season, there wasn’t too much of an improvement. The O’s were 11 games under .500 by mid-June and trending toward yet another miserable season.
But then a flip switched. The Orioles started to win.
The Orioles are currently riding an eight-game winning streak and are just one game below .500 at 43-44. It’s the first eight-game winning streak for Baltimore since 2005. During the streak, the Orioles swept both the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels at home. On Tuesday night, they’ll look to keep the good times rolling on the road against the Chicago Cubs.
The Orioles, with Jordan Lyles on the mound opposite of Chicago’s Adrian Sampson, are +100 underdogs at BetMGM. The Cubs, who have lost four straight and have one of the worst records in the National League, are -120 favorites at Wrigley.
With five games to go before the All-Star break, the Orioles find themselves just two games back of a playoff spot in the crowded American League wild-card standings.
One of the teams the Orioles trail is the Mariners, who are in the midst of their own eight-game winning streak and currently have a 45-42 record. Since losing four of five at home to the Angels in mid-June, Seattle has won 16 of its last 19, going from 10 games under .500 to three games over.
The Mariners are coming off a four-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays ahead of Tuesday night’s road game with the Washington Nationals, who have lost nine of their last 10. For Tuesday’s game, the odds are even on both sides: -110 for the Mariners and -110 for the Nats. Chris Flexen is on the hill for Seattle on the heels of tossing 6.2 shutout innings in San Diego in his last outing.
Here’s a look at the rest of Tuesday’s betting slate:
Mets-Braves series continues
The New York Mets have slowly been ceding the status of first place in the NL East to the Atlanta Braves over the last few months, but the Mets put forth a strong effort in the first game of their series in Atlanta on Monday night.
With Max Scherzer on the mound, the Mets pulled out a 4-1 victory to add a game of distance to the standings. The Mets are now 2.5 games up on the Braves, but Atlanta can get one back on Tuesday night with Spencer Strider on the mound against Mets lefty Drew Peterson.
The Braves are big favorites at BetMGM, listed at -185. The Mets are +150 underdogs.
What else is going on in MLB?
The St. Louis Cardinals dropped the first two games of their series with the Philadelphia Phillies but rallied to win on both Sunday and Monday to split the four-game set. Now they welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are winners of seven straight.
The Dodgers, now seven games up in the NL West standings, are -145 road favorites on Tuesday. The Dodgers are 25-15 as road favorites this season. The Cardinals (+120) are 7-7 as home dogs.
Speaking of the Phillies, they will be rather depleted as they head to Canada to face the Blue Jays. The club is already dealing with a slew of injuries, and now the Phillies will be without two more regulars — catcher J.T. Realmuto and third baseman Alec Bohm — due to their vaccination status. Starter Kyle Gibson also did not make the trip for the two-game set.
The Phillies are expected to go with a bullpen game on Tuesday but have not announced a starter. As of this writing, the game had no odds posted.
In all, there are 16 MLB games on the schedule for Tuesday.
Anything else to bet on?
Not really, unless you want to find some NBA Summer League lines. It’s July, and sports betting options are limited outside of baseball.
However, the British Open is on the horizon and football is creeping closer.
