MLB Baseball Betting: Texas Rangers at Toronto Blue Jays

To be sure, I didn’t expect much from the Toronto Blue Jays heading into the playoffs. I definitely wasn’t alone. The Jays have been one of the most erratic–and at times disappointing–teams in the playoffs. That being said, there’s no complaints about what they’ve done so far and now return home to the Rogers Centre with a 2-0 lead over the Texas Rangers in the American League Divisional Series. There are those who dismiss the importance of ‘momentum’ into the playoffs but the Rangers have now lost four straight and 6 of their last 9 while Toronto has won 5 straight and 7 of 11.

One important reason that the Jays are up 2-0 is that their pitching has returned to excellent form at just the right time. That can’t be said for the Rangers and today’s matchup is illustrative of that. Toronto will start right hander Aaron Sanchez who has been decent for most of the year but very sharp in his most recent starts. For the year, Sanchez has a 3.05 ERA with a 1.172 WHIP overall, a 3.74 ERA with a 1.286 WHIP at home and a 1.42 ERA and a 1.000 WHIP in his last three starts. Toronto is 18-12 in his starts overall this season, 8-5 in his starts at home and 2-1 in his last 3 starts.

Texas starter Colby Lewis is coming off of a decent performance where he didn’t get any help from his teammates but hasn’t been particularly sharp of late. Lewis has a 2.71 ERA overall with a 1.126 WHIP, a 2.75 ERA on the road with a 0.934 WHIP and a 6.93 L3 ERA with a 1.694 WHIP. The Rangers are 10-9 overall in his starts, 5-4 in his road starts and 0-3 in his last three starts. To be sure, the Rangers have had their hands full with the Blue Jays this season. They’re 3-6 overall including 1-3 at the Rogers Centre.

Toronto has been a very streaky team this year and they’re on the plus side of the ledger right now. These teams are very similar in a lot of ways–particularly in their strong performance against right handed pitching. In many circumstances we’d take the price with the road team in this matchup but can’t dismiss the form of each team.

BET TORONTO BLUE JAYS -185 OVER TEXAS RANGERS