Baseball Betting: Toronto Blue Jays at Oakland A’s
It’s ‘getaway day’ in the Major Leagues which gives us a short slate of nighttime baseball for Wednesday night. The Toronto Blue Jays will be one of the games ‘under the lights’ on Wednesday as they head out West to take on the disappointing Oakland A’s looking to make it two straight against their AL West foe. Toronto won the opening game of the series last night in lopsided fashion by a final score of 7-1 as Mark Buehrle shut down the A’s offense.
Tuesday’s game will see the Blue Jays sending another lefthander to the hill–this time it’ll be Felix Doubront making only his second start of the year. He’s got a 4.63 ERA and the Jays have split his two assignments. Of course Doubront’s numbers may not matter as much as his ‘port side’ delivery–Oakland is horrible against left handed pitching. The A’s average 3.8 runs per game and hit .247. Their W/L performance against lefthanders is even more pitiful–Oakland is 7-18 -13.7 units against southpaws this season.
Oakland will counter with their ace, Sonny Gray, who is having a good but not great season. Gray has a 2.98 ERA overall and the A’s are 11-8 when he starts. He’s not been as effective at home, however, where he’s got a 2.88 ERA and the A’s are 3-5 in his starts. Gray’s pitching has been just fine but he’s not been getting much help from his teammates. The A’s type of ‘small ball’ is great when it works but it can go wrong and go wrong badly–that’s why Oakland has burned through -17.4 units of their backers’ money at home with a 20-28 record.
To be fair, Toronto hasn’t been great on the road (20-28) but that’s not quite as bad as a team 8 games under .500 on their home field. Worth noting that the Blue Jays have been horrible this year as a road underdog in this price range (+125 to +150). In fact, they’re 0-8 in this price range. That being said, the A’s look overvalued here given their struggles at home this season. For that reason, we’ll back the Blue Jays. Oakland’s pricing has more to do with their success in recent seasons than what they’re doing on the field this year.
BET TORONTO BLUE JAYS +150 OVER OAKLAND A’S
