MLB Baseball
2012-05-23 - Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Rays
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Wednesday 23 May 2012 - First Pitch 1:10pm ET
6:10pm (British Standard Time)
Preview
The Tampa Bay Rays (26-18) finally managed to get their offense going as they took game 2 of this series with the Toronto Blue Jays (24-20) and continue to hold the Indian sign over their American League East rivals. The Blue Jays took game 1 and that means this is the series decided in a day game.
Tampa Bay took advantage of Home Runs that brought in multiple runs and managed to stay ahead of the Blue Jays for the night in a 8-5 win. Toronto had a brief rally but a single shot that left the ballpark ended the resistance and brought this series level.
The Rays will believe they can build on that performance as they send James Shields to the mound in his bid to become the first 7 game winner in the Major Leagues this season. Shields is 6-2 with a 3.77 ERA, but has just struggled recently, allowing at least 4 runs in 4 of his last 5 appearances.
Shields gave up 4 runs and issued 3 walks in just over 6 innings pitched against the Atlanta Braves in his last outing as Tampa Bay were beaten 5-3. He is throwing far too many pitches at the moment to get innings through, but Shields will look forward to this game I am sure.
That is because the pitcher threw two complete games against Toronto last season while having a 0.71 ERA in three starts against them in 2011. Shields is also 6-2 with a 3.15 ERA in 10 games against them here at Tropicana Field.
Shields will likely need to be at his best as Toronto are sending Ricky Romero to the mound who has a 5-1 record and a 3.64 ERA this season. Romero is coming in off an outing when he allowed just 1 run in 6 innings pitched against the New York Mets, but he issued 4 walks in that game which means he has allowed 14 in his last 17 innings pitched.
The pitcher is 4-2 with a 2.38 ERA in his last six starts against the Rays and he allowed 3 runs and issued 3 walks in 6 innings pitched against them earlier this season, a game that resulted in a Toronto win.
Head to Head
Tampa Bay improved to 5-2 in the season series against Toronto and they will be looking for their third series win against them in 2012 with a win today.
The Rays also improved to 8-4 in their last 12 games at Tropicana Field against the Blue Jays.
Tampa Bay are 10-7 in day games this season, Toronto are 10-6.
Prediction
This is a fascinating pitching duel in prospect as both have had success when pitching against the other team, but tonight I think James Shields has the slight edge and will help his team get the series win.
Ricky Romero has been solid in not allowing too many runs, but he is issuing far too many walks and extending innings will eventually come back to bite him as far as I am concerned. Tampa Bay may also have found some life at the plate in their 8-5 win last night.
James Shields has been solid against Toronto in his career at home, while his last three starts were very effective in limiting this batting line up. With Tampa Bay also winning 4 of their 5 games with Toronto by at least a couple of runs, an interest in them doing the same today at 2.90 looks worth taking.
The Pick :
Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 Toronto Blue Jays
