#965/966 ASA TOP PLAY ON Over 8.5 Runs – Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics, Thursday at 3:35 PM ET – Yusei Kikuchi starts for the Mariners in this one. The Seattle southpaw has been having a dreadful time on the road. From mid-August to now he has made 3 road starts and has been hammered in every single one. The cumulative stats from those outings are 14 earned runs on 18 hits and 7 walks in only 7 and 1 / 3 innings of work! Kikuchi's first start out of the All Star break was also on the road and he allowed 7 earned runs in 5 innings. Though he has had some success against the A's this season, his current road struggles have been consistent and have been ugly. Look for him to get rocked in this outing. Oakland counters with Chris Bassitt here and this is going to likely be a tough outing for him. He took a line drive to the face when on the mound August 17th and suffered multiple facial fractures. This will be his first start after that incident and, mentally, that is a tough situation to simply immediately bounce back from. Also going against Bassitt here is the fact he has allowed 4 earned runs in each of his two starts versus the Mariners this season. Seattle has won 4 straight games and scored an average of 5 runs per game in the victories. The Mariners are 12-5-1 to the over in their last 18 games. That includes a recent stretch of unders but given this pitching match-up, the over trending is very likely to resume here. There is strong support for expecting each starter to be a bit "off" in this one and the hitters will take advantage! This total is in the 8.5 range and our computer math model shows this one getting into double digits in runs scored with each club enjoying success at the plate and having a solid shot of getting to 5 runs apiece which, of course, would mean at least 11 runs (6-5 final at a minimum) in this one. Bet the Over