MLB Baseball Betting: Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Rays

The Toronto Blue Jays lead the NL East by 2 games over the second place Boston Red Sox and 4 games over the third place Baltimore Orioles as they head into what is likely to be a rainy Tampa Bay for a weekend series against the lowly Rays. Tampa Bay’s record as of Thursday night was almost 20 games worse than Toronto’s and they’ve lost 6 of 10. They’re 13.5 games back of the fourth place New York Yankees (who have been playing well of late and are just 6.5 games out of first).

Despite the disparity between these teams there’s the potential for a Blue Jays’ letdown if they’re not careful. This could be very dangerous as Toronto has a rough schedule sequence coming up next week–they’ll play three games at Yankee Stadium against New York on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week followed by a three game series at home against the Boston Red Sox on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Compounding the danger for a ‘letdown’ here is the fact that the Jays’ rotation has been in a state of flux for the weekend games against Tampa Bay. Francisco Liriano was originally penciled in as Friday’s starter but now Marcus Stroman will get the ball. R.A. Dickey is scheduled to start on Sunday but that could change and as of this writing there’s no listed starter for Saturday.

Tampa Bay will welcome former staff ace Alex Cobb back to the rotation following a long rehab from Tommy John elbow surgery. Cobb last pitched on September 28, 2014. Interestingly, with Cobb being activated the Jays have no one on the disabled list–that’s the first time they’ve not had a player on the DL since July 6, 2011. Cobb should be rusty–and understandably so–but he’s back in the rotation with Tampa going to a six man rotation for the rest of the season.

He could get a rude reception since Toronto can’t afford the letdown and have pulverized right handed pitching this year to the tune of 5.2 runs per game and a .256 batting average. They’ve also hit 127 of their 177 home runs against right handers. We wish the best for Cobb’s return but he couldn’t be facing a tougher offense. No line on this game as of yet but when it goes up the Jays are the play.

BET TORONTO BLUE JAYS OVER TAMPA BAY RAYS