MLB Baseball Betting: Cleveland Indians at Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays made the Cleveland Indians work hard for their 14th straight win. The Indians opened up a 1-0 lead in the third inning before Toronto tied it in the 7th. But the fun was just beginning–it continued until Carlos Santana homered in the 19th inning off of Jays’ infielder Darwin Barney. That ended a 6 hour and 13 minute game that included 19 pitchers and 34 left on base. The end result, however, was another Cleveland win. It’s the longest winning streak in franchise history topping a 13 game winning streak in 1942 and 1951. It’s also the longest streak in the Majors since 2013 (Atlanta won 14 straight that year) and longest in the American League since Oakland won 20 straight in 2002.

From a handicapping standpoint, the first obvious question has to be ‘what does this do to the bullpens’? A better question would be about the starters–Cleveland had to use their scheduled starter for today’s game in the 15th on Friday. Having used 7 of their 8 relievers (only Cody Allen didn’t pitch due to his recent workload) they gave the ball to Bauer who worked five innings for the win. Obviously he won’t be starting today but as of yet no word on who will. Immediately after the game, Cleveland manager Terry Francona gave this (obviously accurate) quote: We’re working through that right now. We’ve got some things we’ve got to talk through.”

Toronto will start right hander Marco Estrada who hasn’t been phenomenal of late allowing at least one home run in each of his last five starts. Toronto has won 8 of his 15 starts this season including 4 of 7 at home. His overall ERA is 2.81 and his home ERA is 2.12. In theory, Cleveland might be a ‘go against’ here after a game that left their starting rotation and bullpen staff set up in such disarray but I have no interest in jumping in front of this Indians’ freight train at the moment. Toronto has been erratic all year and there’s nothing about Cleveland’s play right now that suggests ‘inconsistent’. This game will look even better with the Indians as a small underdog. We’ll gladly back the Tribe until they give us reason to do otherwise.

BET CLEVELAND INDIANS +115 OVER TORONTO BLUE JAYS