MLB Baseball Betting: Baltimore Orioles at Tampa Bay Rays

With a full card of American League action going on Sunday we’ll take a look at this game involving the Toronto Blue Jays’ ‘target’ atop the AL East. The Baltimore Orioles have won four straight coming out of the All Star Break and now have a two game lead atop the division over second place Boston and a 4 game lead over the third place Jays. On Sunday, the O’s will try to complete a three game sweep of the floundering Tampa Bay Rays before heading to New York for a four game series against the Yankees.

Tampa Bay is a mess. They’ve lost 8 straight and 11 of 12. No matter how you slice it or which situational perspective you view it from the sum total is the same–the Rays are just a lousy team. Sunday’s starter for Tampa will be Jake Odorizzi and the best thing that can be said about the veteran right hander is that his YTD numbers aren’t as bad as you think they’d be. He’s got a 4.47 ERA overall and a 1.271 WHIP. Tampa Bay has gone 9-10 in his 19 starts which is actually good for this pitiful Rays team. The bad news–they’ve lost 7 of his 10 home starts despite Odorizzi’s 3.90 ERA and 1.144 WHIP. He’s been terrible in his last two starts and Tampa Bay has lost his last five starts.

Baltimore will send one of their most impressive young pitching prospects to the mound on Sunday as 23 year old righthander Dylan Bundy makes his Major League debut. The working plan is for him to join the Orioles’ rotation and there is considerable debate among the team’s boosters as to the advisability of that plan. For this game, it’s probably not an issue either way. Every indication is that this is a planned ‘bullpen game’ and that Bundy is the first man up. Expect him to be on a heavy pitch count.

Tampa Bay isn’t a good team in any situation but they’ve lost less than a unit on the season against lefthanders. They’ve gone 23-45 -27.9 units against right handers, however, and they’re the perfect opponent for Bundy’s debut. No reason to think that this won’t be another Baltimore win.

BET BALTIMORE ORIOLES -115 OVER TAMPA BAY RAYS