Mariners vs. Royals prediction and odds for Tuesday, August 15 (Hancock's 2nd Start)

The Seattle Mariners had a win-streak going, but now they’re stuck in the middle of a three-game losing streak after falling 7-6 to the Kansas City Royals last night. Now, the Mariners are 63-55 and desperately need to even their series with the 39-81 Royals. 

For Game 2, Seattle will send Emerson Hancock to the mound to make his second career start. He will be opposed by Jordan Lyles making his 23rd start of the season. Lyles is 3-13 for Kansas City with a 6.13 ERA. 

Let’s get into the odds for this one. 

Hancock had an interesting debut, going five innings and allowing just one run on two hits, but with three walks and just three strikeouts. He generated a very high ground ball rate, an unsustainable 64.3%. He will need to continue generating soft contact like that and avoiding line drives, or miss more bats. 

It appears that Hancock has the stuff to get more swing and miss. He generated a 27.8% whiff rate on the 34 four-seam fastballs he threw in his debut. He also had a whiff rate of 20% on his slider and 30% on his sinker. 

I’m not certain that the Mariners can lean on Hancock, but I am certain that Kansas City will lean heavily on Lyles. He’s worked 126.1 innings already this year and last time out went eight despite allowing four runs on seven hits. The Royals will get whatever length they can out of Lyles and there’s a reason that they are 3-19 in his starts. 

Seattle isn’t a huge favorite, so I’m comfortable taking them on the moneyline even though the Royals have won two of Lyles’ last three starts. Over the past week, Julio Rodriguez has driven in nine of their Mariners 26 runs, so they’ll need him to make an impact at the top of their order again. 

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change