Tigers vs. Mariners Odds & Betting Predictions - October 5, 2025

Melton started in 3 of his first 5 big-league appearances before moving to the bullpen. He made 12 appearances as a reliever. While he frequently worked more than 1 inning, he only reached 3 IP twice out of the bullpen. “It’s going to be somewhat abbreviated given how we’ve used him over the past couple months,” Hinch said. Seattle led the league in OPS, wOBA, and wRC+ vs. RHP in September. They also saw the 10th-most pitches per plate appearance in the regular season. Maybe Melton is able to navigate this lineup without allowing more than a base runner, but that's what it'll take to complete 3 innings before the big bats come up again.

Update: Don’t bet this - just announced Tarik Skubal is now starting Game 2 and Game 1 to be a bullpen game. Thankfully only logged at a quarter unit which I’m fine with. The Mariners are favored in Game 1 and rightfully so. The Tigers whimpered into the postseason in awful form and barely got by the Guardians in the Wild Card round while the Mariners surged in September. But I don’t care what happened in September because this is October baseball, and now we’re getting Tarik Skubal as an underdog. Skubal did throw 107 pitches on 9/30 so he’s not pitching on normal rest, but this current Mariners lineup has hit .223 against him with a .656 OPS. On the flip side, this current Tigers team has hit George Kirby to the tune of a .271 average and 1.020 OPS. Maybe Skubal doesn’t get a normal long leash here on short rest but I’ll gladly take 5-6 innings of Skubal as an underdog at these odds.