MLB Baseball
2012-05-22 - Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Rays
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Tuesday 22 May 2012 - First Pitch 7:10pm ET
12:10am (British Standard Time)
Preview
These two American League East Divisional rivals are almost sharing the same record after the Toronto Blue Jays (24-19) took the first game of a three game set against the Tampa Bay Rays (25-18) last night. The Rays were expected to be a Play Off contender this season, but the Blue Jays have got themselves in that mix with a great start to the new season.
Both teams have been going in opposite directions in the last week or so and that was highlighted yesterday with Toronto taking game 1 thanks to a 6-2 win. That means Toronto are 5-1 in their last 6 games, while Tampa Bay were dropped to 1-4.
Tonight we will see a battle of young pitchers as Toronto sends Drew Hutchison to the mound and Tampa Bay send Matt Moore.
Hutchison is 3-1 with a 4.81 ERA this season, but it is his last two outings that have really excited the Blue Jays. He held the Minnesota Twins to 1 run in over 6 innings pitched, but followed that up by limiting the New York Yankees to 1 run in 6 innings pitched against them.
The pitcher will want to issue less walks having totalled 8 in his last two outings as he faced the Rays for the first time.
Matt Moore is 1-4 with a 5.20 ERA this season and he was caught early by the Boston Red Sox in his last outing when he allowed 3 runs in 6 innings pitched, all 3 runs coming in the first 3 he pitched. One area that has made the Tampa Bay management happy was the fact he allowed just 1 walk against the Red Sox after averaging more than 3 a game in his first 7 starts.
This will be the first time Moore faces the Toronto Blue Jays.
Head to Head
The win last night means Toronto have improved to 2-4 in the season series between the teams. The previous 5 games took place in Toronto as they lost the first two series between the teams.
Tampa Bay have generally been successful when hosting the Blue Jays in recent games and they were 4-1 in the previous 5 before losing last night.
The Rays are 15-7 at home, Toronto are 12-9 on the road this season.
Prediction
The Tampa Bay Rays are excited that Matt Moore can be an integral part of their rotation, but the young pitcher is struggling and I am not sure he deserves to be a short favourite against Toronto tonight.
Drew Hutchison has been effective in recent outings, but still has room for improvement. However, confidence cannot be underestimated and he should be confident having allowed 2 runs in his last 12 innings pitched. If he can hold down the walks, he could be in a very good position to pick up his third straight win.
I feel the Toronto batting line up also has a slight edge in their form of recent weeks and the 2.25 on the away side to cause an upset tonight looks a touch big to me.
The Pick :
Tampa Bay Rays 4-5 Toronto Blue Jays
