MLB Baseball Betting: Toronto Blue Jays at Cleveland Indians

Big weekend series for the Toronto Blue Jays who are trying to hold on to first place in the highly competitive AL East. With Boston losing on Thursday and the Baltimore Orioles winning here’s how things stand heading into Friday’s action: The Jays are in first place by 1.5 games over Boston and Baltimore who are tied for second. The New York Yankees aren’t dead yet but they’ve got an uphill battle as they’re 7.5 games out of first. Cleveland is in pretty good shape in the AL Central–they lead the second place Detroit Tigers by 5.5 games. Detroit has lost 7 of 10 but the hottest team in the division could become an issue at some point–the Kansas City Royals have won 4 straight and 8 of 10 though they’re still 4.5 games back of Detroit and 9 games back of Cleveland. This is all pending the outcome of Thursday night action with Cleveland in a very competitive game with the Chicago White Sox.

The Jays will start lefthander Francisco Liriano who has struggled this year and has shown little improvement since coming over from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Liriano’s teams are 10-13 in his 23 starts including 5-6 on the road. He’s got a 5.46 ERA overall with a 6.23 road ERA and a 5.94 ERA in his last three starts. The Indians hit left handed pitching well (23-12 +8.1 units) and have been hitting the ball well over the past week with a .348 batting average and a 7 run per game average.

The Tribe will counter with right hander Trevor Bauer who has been only marginally better than Liriano. Overall, Cleveland is 10-9 in his 19 starts including 6 of 10 at home. They’re 2-1 in his last three assignments. Overall, Bauer has a 4.07 ERA with a 4.72 home ERA and a 6.60 L3 ERA. Toronto, however, hits right handed pitching well averaging 5.2 runs per game with a record of 52-34 +9.1 units. They’ve been hitting .270 and averaging 6 runs per game in their last 7 contests.

This has been a very competitive series this year with the teams splitting four games at the Rogers Centre. The Jays have also won 4 of the last 7 in Cleveland and 10 of the last 17 meetings overall. We’ll take Toronto at an underdog price.

BET TORONTO BLUE JAYS +120 OVER CLEVELAND INDIANS