Tampa Bay Rays Take on Blue Jays in Toronto
Looking to get back in the win column following Thursday's tough loss, the Rays hit the road with Matt Garza getting the starting nod in the Blue Jays series opener.
While the Yankees and Red Sox are trying to beat each other's brains out in the Bronx this weekend, the 'other team' in the AL East will be off in Toronto looking to make hay against the Blue Jays. The Tampa Bay Rays are just a half-game behind New York in the AL East as play begins Friday, and a healthy six games up in the AL Wild Card standings.
Tampa Bay dropped a half-game back of the Yanks as a result of an 8-6 loss to the Twins at The Trop on Thursday while New York was idle. The Rays, -145 favorites in the game, battled back from a 6-0 deficit to tie the game before Minnesota rallied with a pair in the ninth for the victory. The 'over' was just the third time in 12 games Tampa ventured above the baseball betting total.
The total will be eight for Friday's series opener at Rogers Centre, with the Rays small 110-120 chalk. The pitching matchup has lefty Brett Cecil (11-7, 3.77) taking the mound for the Canadians against Matt Garza (14-8, 4.11) and the Floridians.
A big reason Tampa Bay is hanging right there with the Yankees is baseball's best record inside a team's own division. The Rays are 27-14 versus AL East squads, which is 2½-games better than New York. It's also been solid gold to MLB bettors in 2010 with a 10.1 unit profit. The Rays are up about $6.50 overall.
Tampa Bay also has the most road wins of any big league club with 33, with two of those coming in Toronto a little more than two months ago. The lone loss for the Rays was a start by Garza who was around minus 130 in a Blue Jays 3-2 win.
This will be the third time each pitcher has faced the opposing lineups in 2010, and second head-to-head matchup between Garza and Cecil. The two hurlers opened the season series between the two clubs back in April. Cecil and Toronto jumped to a four-zip lead in the top of the first and held on for a 6-5 win with 200+ underdog odds. Cecil's other appearance was in Tampa also, the southpaw worked into the seventh as a 125 'dog versus Wade Davis and Toronto took a 3-2 win.
After a mostly sunny day in Toronto, the chance of rain heads into the 30 percent area for the evening so the roof is likely to be closed if any of that looks threatening. If not, it should be in the upper-60s around game time with NW winds at 10 mph and up. That would be in from left field, but with the big roof (if it's open) most of that should be negated.
The series continues Saturday and Sunday with 1:07 p.m. ET starts. James Shields (11-11, 4.54) opposes Jesse Litsch (2-7, 5.79) in Game 2 with Jeff Niemann (17-5, 3.12) battling Brandon Morrow (12-9, 4.79) in the series finale.
NOTE: W-L records displayed for starting pitchers are team records in games the pitchers start.
Looking to get back in the win column following Thursday's tough loss, the Rays hit the road with Matt Garza getting the starting nod in the Blue Jays series opener.
While the Yankees and Red Sox are trying to beat each other's brains out in the Bronx this weekend, the 'other team' in the AL East will be off in Toronto looking to make hay against the Blue Jays. The Tampa Bay Rays are just a half-game behind New York in the AL East as play begins Friday, and a healthy six games up in the AL Wild Card standings.
Tampa Bay dropped a half-game back of the Yanks as a result of an 8-6 loss to the Twins at The Trop on Thursday while New York was idle. The Rays, -145 favorites in the game, battled back from a 6-0 deficit to tie the game before Minnesota rallied with a pair in the ninth for the victory. The 'over' was just the third time in 12 games Tampa ventured above the baseball betting total.
The total will be eight for Friday's series opener at Rogers Centre, with the Rays small 110-120 chalk. The pitching matchup has lefty Brett Cecil (11-7, 3.77) taking the mound for the Canadians against Matt Garza (14-8, 4.11) and the Floridians.
A big reason Tampa Bay is hanging right there with the Yankees is baseball's best record inside a team's own division. The Rays are 27-14 versus AL East squads, which is 2½-games better than New York. It's also been solid gold to MLB bettors in 2010 with a 10.1 unit profit. The Rays are up about $6.50 overall.
Tampa Bay also has the most road wins of any big league club with 33, with two of those coming in Toronto a little more than two months ago. The lone loss for the Rays was a start by Garza who was around minus 130 in a Blue Jays 3-2 win.
This will be the third time each pitcher has faced the opposing lineups in 2010, and second head-to-head matchup between Garza and Cecil. The two hurlers opened the season series between the two clubs back in April. Cecil and Toronto jumped to a four-zip lead in the top of the first and held on for a 6-5 win with 200+ underdog odds. Cecil's other appearance was in Tampa also, the southpaw worked into the seventh as a 125 'dog versus Wade Davis and Toronto took a 3-2 win.
After a mostly sunny day in Toronto, the chance of rain heads into the 30 percent area for the evening so the roof is likely to be closed if any of that looks threatening. If not, it should be in the upper-60s around game time with NW winds at 10 mph and up. That would be in from left field, but with the big roof (if it's open) most of that should be negated.
The series continues Saturday and Sunday with 1:07 p.m. ET starts. James Shields (11-11, 4.54) opposes Jesse Litsch (2-7, 5.79) in Game 2 with Jeff Niemann (17-5, 3.12) battling Brandon Morrow (12-9, 4.79) in the series finale.
NOTE: W-L records displayed for starting pitchers are team records in games the pitchers start.
