Jays and Rays Highlight a Busy Canada Day Weekend
Blue Jays celebrate Canada Day Weekend at Rogers Centre featuring 5 games versus the Rays, including a doubleheader on Saturday
The Toronto Blue Jays will face the Tampa Bay Rays in a critical stretch of games for both teams that will see these two AL East rivals play five games in the next four nights.
The action begins on Thursday in Toronto and concludes on Sunday.
One of these two teams could be primed to move up in the standings of baseball's toughest division, while the other will fall further behind the red-hot New York Yankees, who now appear to be uncatchable and have nearly wrapped up a playoff spot, barring a monumental meltdown.
Read our previous articles on the Yankees' hot start:
READ: Can Anyone Catch the Yankees
READ: Yankees Continue Rolling to Record-Breaking Season
The Blue Jays have steadily hovered around 10 games above .500 for the past month, unable so far to meet the high expectations placed upon them as favourites to represent the AL in next fall's World Series.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay is 6 games above the break-even mark, normally satisfactory, but not nearly good enough this year considering the stiff competition.
[Read a good scouting report on the Tampa Bay Rays here]
In an unusual series for any two teams, let alone rivals, both staffs are expected to display their entire starting pitching rotations over the next four days.
Note that all games from Friday onward (Canada Day) will be played in daylight hours, including early starts on both Saturday (a doubleheader) and Sunday. So, if you bet them at Spreads.ca, be sure to get action down on time.
Predictions (powered by Pointspreads.ca):
Wednesday marked the Rays’ 14th straight game decided by either one or two runs--and they’ve lost nine of them. In fact, Tampa Bay has played 44 1- or 2-run games this season, the most of any team.
Accordingly, we think the Rays as dogs in most if not all games on the moneyline will be attractively priced on the run-line (+1.5 runs) in every game.
We don't like betting against our Jays, especially on Canada Day weekend, so we're taking the Rays on the run-line in all five games.
With scoring also down leaguewide, getting that extra run has a little extra value, also.
