Las Vegas at Seattle

The A's have been unwatchable for a month, and Thursday night in Seattle doesn't figure to change that. Las Vegas is buried at 54-86, sinking further with a losing streak that's turned September into a formality, and the bullpen behind whoever starts has been the worst in baseball by ERA all year. Jack Perkins is the poster child for the collapse: 0-4 with a 7.60 ERA, and he's bounced between the rotation and the bullpen because neither role has worked. On the other side, Kade Anderson has been exactly what Seattle hoped for out of its top prospect. The lefty needed just three career starts to look like he belongs, sitting at 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA and already showing the poise to work through lineups twice. The Mariners are 37-31 at home, a real number against an Athletics club that's a miserable 29-42 on the road, and Seattle has taken four of six meetings between these two clubs already this season. My read here isn't a coin flip dressed up as a mismatch. It's a fringe big-league arm going up against a genuine talent, with a home Seattle team that has every situational edge on its side. The price reflects the gap, and it should, and it's exactly the kind of number our ledger is built on. Take the Mariners on the moneyline tonight.