Last night’s 4-3 loss to the Tigers resigns the Mariners to being a road team in the Wild Card Round where they will travel to face either Toronto or Cleveland. The M’s currently have a 1.5 game lead over the Rays for the fifth seed, which would mean a matchup with Toronto. Looking to bounce back Tuesday, Seattle has shuffled its starting rotation and I like them to win the first game of this doubleheader.

Detroit has been a decent “spoiler” down the stretch and by winning 11 of its last 13 games, they’ve already ensured they won’t lose 100 games. Unless they lose out and Kansas City wins out, the Tigers won’t finish in the basement of the AL Central either.

It was going to be Marco Gonzales starting this first game for Seattle, but that’s been changed to Chris Flexen and the nightcap will now be a bullpen game. Flexen hasn’t actually started a game since 8/6, but has made one relief appearance against the Tigers since then. Detroit has one of the weakest lineups in all of baseball, ranking last in runs, last in slugging and 29th (next to last) in OBP. I expect Flexen to turn in a strong outing here.

Can’t say the same for the Tigers’ Eduardo Rodriguez though. He got bombed for six runs in a 7-0 loss to Seattle back on Sept 1. While Rodriguez has posted three consecutive quality starts coming into this game, a fourth would be surprising seeing as how he has a 4.02 ERA and 1.34 WHIP on the year.

Seattle can wrap up the 5-seed with a sweep today. So look for them to come out strong and take this first game of the doubleheader. Detroit is just 9-19 as a road underdog of +125 to +175 this year. 9*