MLB Baseball Betting: Detroit Tigers at Toronto Blue Jays

The Detroit Tigers ended the Toronto Blue Jays’ seven game winning streak on Saturday but that did little more than ‘stop the bleeding’ for the road team. The Jays are still in good shape as the first half of the season ends. They enter Sunday’s action trailing the first place Baltimore Orioles by two games and tied with the Boston Red Sox for second place. Toronto got another excellent pitching performance from Aaron Sanchez on Saturday but their undoing was a problem that has haunted them all season long–their shabby offensive performance against left handers.

If you’re in to situational stats here’s a wild one–Detroit has been horrible over the past few years as a road underdog of +175 to +200. How horrible? They’ve lost 14 straight games in this role dating back three seasons. They’re 0-5 in this role this year. Thankfully, the home team doesn’t have to worry about another struggling left hander getting well at their expense like Matt Boyd on Saturday. The Tigers will start Anibal Sanchez who has been hit harder than a punching bag in a boxing gym this year. Sanchez has started 13 games of which the Tigers have lost 10. He’s got a 7.23 ERA overall and a 7.68 road ERA (Tigers 1-6 in his 7 road starts). His last three games might have him considering retirement–and that’s not a joke or overstatement. The Tigers lost all three of these games with the veteran right hander allowing 17 earned runs in 12 1/3 innings of work–that’s a 12.41 ERA and a 2.109 WHIP. Ouch.

Toronto finally got a win in an R.A. Dickey start at the Rogers Centre last time out as the knuckleballer pitched very well in an 8-3 rout of Kansas City. He’s looked good in his last two starts as a matter of fact going 14 innings allowing just 5 earned runs. His home stat line is still ugly (especially the Jays’ 1-8 record) but all that Toronto expects of him is for him to keep them in the game and let the team’s bats’ do the rest. That dynamic didn’t work earlier in the year when the Jays’ offense sputtered but it is now and it should work on Sunday.

BET TORONTO BLUE JAYS -180 OVER DETROIT TIGERS