MLB Baseball Betting: Toronto Blue Jays at Texas Rangers

The Toronto Blue Jays were expected to challenge for the AL East title again this year. The hope was that they’d be here just in time to take Canadian sports fans’ minds off of the NHL playoffs (with no Canada based teams). So far they haven’t done much besides ‘tread water’. The Jays are 18-18 in the early going (pending the outcome of Friday night action) but they’re just 4.5 games out of first place in the division so they’ve still got plenty of time.

They’ve got a tough challenge this weekend as they play a series in Dallas against the Texas Rangers. The Rangers are 20-15 on the year and just 1.5 games behind the AL West leading Seattle Mariners. They’ve been especially good at home where they’re 12-6 +6.7 units on the year. They’ve won five of their last six games (pending Friday’s result) and will start righthander Colby Lewis. Lewis has been so-so this year as the Rangers have lost 4 of his 7 starts. He’s put up a 3.20 ERA and a 1.267 WHIP overall with a 3.81 ERA and 1.385 WHIP at home. He’ll be opposed by the Blue Jays’ Marco Estrada–he’s pitched well this year (2.39 ERA, 1.088 WHIP) but just hasn’t received much help from his teammates. He’s allowed a total of 5 earned runs in 19 2/3 innings over his last two stars posting a 2.29 ERA and 0.763 WHIP in that timeframe. Unfortunately, the Jays won only one of those games. Worth noting that like the Jays in general Estrada has been a strong ‘Under’ play this year with 6 games ‘Under’ in 6 starts.

Toronto’s problem this year has been their disappointing offense. They’ve got the #26 team batting average in the Majors (.234) and have been even worse on the road hitting just .216 and averaging 3.7 runs per game. Their pitching has been decent–they’ve got the #6 team ERA in baseball at 3.26–but it’s impossible to win games if you’re not scoring runs. The good news is that the Jays have done well against the Rangers in recent years winning 14 of 21 overall including 6 of 8 in Dallas. They’ve even won 3 of 4 from Texas this year and Estrada has an impressive 1.48 career ERA against the Rangers. We’ll take a shot on the road team and look for this one to stay ‘Under’ the total. 3 of the 4 head to head matchups this year have failed to exceed the total.

BET TORONTO BLUE JAYS -125 OVER TEXAS RANGERS