Sunday Night Baseball: Guardians vs. Mariners
Sunday Night Baseball is on Peacock now, as the streaming revolution gains more and more steam with live sports broadcasts with each passing season. It will be Guardians vs. Mariners for the first broadcast, as Cleveland looks to take three of four to open the season in this battle of reigning division champions. Seattle was 2-for-14 with RISP in last night’s 6-5 extra-inning loss as the teams combined to use 11 relievers.
Slade Cecconi and Emerson Hancock are the listed starters here, as the Mariners are favored again, as they have been in all four games of the series.
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How to Watch Guardians vs. Mariners
Where: Peacock
When: Sunday March 29, 7:20 p.m. ET
Guardians vs. Mariners MLB Odds
Seattle Mariners -149 // Cleveland Guardians +123
Total: 7.5 (-115/-105)
Guardians vs. Mariners Game Preview
The total of 7.5 with a couple of fourth starters might be what jumps off the page at first, as we’ve had 10, 6, and 11 runs in this series, though the game last night was 3-3 heading to the 10th inning. The teams have combined to hit 11 home runs, in that Chase DeLauter has all four for Cleveland and the Mariners have seven as a team. Homers are about the only form of offense for Seattle thus far, as they have struck out in over 32% of their plate appearances in this series and are only batting .188.
Cleveland is off to a slow start offensively for anybody not named DeLauter, as they’re batting just .226 as a team with a .293 OBP and have struck out over 28% of the time. That said, Cleveland has gotten timely hits when needed, batting .300 with runners in scoring position over 22 plate appearances. Seattle, meanwhile, is batting just .150 in those situations over 24 PA.
Cecconi posted a 4.30 ERA with a 5.00 xERA and a 4.64 FIP over 132 innings of work last season, his first with the Guardians. Command remained an issue, as he gave up 24 homers in 23 starts after allowing 16 HR in 77 innings with the Diamondbacks in 2024. Cecconi allowed a 49.1% Hard Hit% and a 12.2% Barrel% and has allowed an 11.4% Barrel% for his career over 739 batted ball events. That seems like a dicey profile against this power-heavy Mariners lineup.
Hancock has pedestrian MLB numbers and a home run problem of his own. He pitched 90 innings at the MLB level last season with a 4.90 ERA, 5.52 xERA, and a 5.08 FIP over 16 starts and six relief outings. He allowed 15 HR and only had 64 strikeouts, so he’s a pitch-to-contact guy, but the Mariners are trying to change that. In Spring Training, Hancock threw his slider over 35% of the time, cutting back heavily on his sinker and changeup usage. He allowed nine runs on 16 hits, but had 21 strikeouts in 15 innings and a 16.3% SwStr%, which was nearly double what he had last season.
Cecconi had a good spring, allowing just three runs on 14 hits over 16.2 innings of work. He, too, saw a swing and miss bump with a 13.5% SwStr%. That said, he had a 13.6% SwStr% in Spring Training last year and it didn’t carry over to the season. Also, like Hancock, Cecconi made some big pitch usage changes, deploying a new-look cutter at the expense of some of his other offerings.
We’ll see how those things work out for these two starts, but as historically pitch-to-contact guys with HR issues, I think 7.5 is too low on this total. The bullpens have combined to allow 13 runs in the three games in this series and five homers.
Pick: Over 7.5
