The Rays have the highest ‘under’ percentage in the whole Major Leagues at 64-41-5, 61.0 percent, and with Tampa Bay ranking dead last in the majors in batting and with their starter Matt Moore in great form, go ‘under’ again Thursday.
Don’t look for much scoring on Thursday afternoon when Henderson Alvarez and the Toronto Blue Jays (53-57 overall, 25-34 away) take on Matt Moore and the Tampa Bay Rays (58-52 overall, 31-27 home) as the teams wrap up a three-game series from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL at 1:10 ET.
The posted total at Bookmaker Sportsbook is 7½ for this contest with the current odds on the ‘under’ set at -120.
The Rays are hanging in the American League East race as they are only six games behind the New York Yankees while in third place, but they would be much closer or possibly be leading the division with just a normal performance from the offense to support a great pitching staff.. Instead, Tampa Bay has now surprisingly slipped to dead last in the Major Leagues in batting at .230, falling behind the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners in recent days!
Of course, that combination of great pitching and pitiful hitting is an ‘under’ player’s dream, as the Rays have the highest ‘under’ percentage in baseball at 64-41-5, 61.0 percent, and Tampa Bay is currently on ‘under’ runs of 26-10 and 6-0 overall.
The latest two ‘unders’ have come in the first two games of this series, both won by the Rays by scores of 4-1 and 3-2 respectively. The Tampa Bay pitching staff has continued to overcome terrible hitting by putting up a dazzling 1.21 team ERA over the last 10 games, and Thursday’s starter Moore has been a huge part of that.
You may recall that the Rays surprisingly tabbed Moore to start Game 1 of the ALDS vs. the American League Champion Texas Rangers last season when he promptly held Texas to two hits over seven scoreless innings. Well, Moore got off to a slow start this season and he is still only 8-7 with a 3.84 ERA and 1.39 WHIP overall.
However, Moore has allowed two runs or less in each of his last four starts and he is coming off of back-to-back scoreless outings, most recently limiting the Baltimore Orioles to six hits in 5.1 innings in a Rays’ 2-0 win last Friday. He is now facing an injury-depleted Toronto lineup sprinkled with recent AAA call-ups that is batting a dreadful .211 over the last 10 games overall while averaging a scant 2.40 runs per game over that span.
As bad as the Blue Jays have been offensively over the last 10 games, Tampa Bay has been worse batting at a .205 clip, and the Rays are at a hideous .189 in those 10 contests vs. right-handed pitchers while averaging 2.29 runs per nine innings against them.
That is welcome news for Toronto’s starter Alvarez, who has had some nice moments this year but has been mostly inconsistent, resulting in a 7-8 record overall with a 4.47 ERA and 1.38 WHIP. However, Alvarez is in a good cycle right now as he held the Athletics to three runs on only four hits last Thursday after surrendering only one run and five hits in seven innings vs. the potent Detroit Tigers in his prior outing.
Given the state of the Tampa Bay offense, there is no reason why Alvarez shut not pitch reasonably well again today, and that should be all that is required for these teams to go ‘under’ the total on Thursday as the current Jays’ lineup doesn’t expect to do much vs. Moore.
The posted total at Bookmaker Sportsbook is 7½ for this contest with the current odds on the ‘under’ set at -120.
The Rays are hanging in the American League East race as they are only six games behind the New York Yankees while in third place, but they would be much closer or possibly be leading the division with just a normal performance from the offense to support a great pitching staff.. Instead, Tampa Bay has now surprisingly slipped to dead last in the Major Leagues in batting at .230, falling behind the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners in recent days!Of course, that combination of great pitching and pitiful hitting is an ‘under’ player’s dream, as the Rays have the highest ‘under’ percentage in baseball at 64-41-5, 61.0 percent, and Tampa Bay is currently on ‘under’ runs of 26-10 and 6-0 overall.
The latest two ‘unders’ have come in the first two games of this series, both won by the Rays by scores of 4-1 and 3-2 respectively. The Tampa Bay pitching staff has continued to overcome terrible hitting by putting up a dazzling 1.21 team ERA over the last 10 games, and Thursday’s starter Moore has been a huge part of that.
You may recall that the Rays surprisingly tabbed Moore to start Game 1 of the ALDS vs. the American League Champion Texas Rangers last season when he promptly held Texas to two hits over seven scoreless innings. Well, Moore got off to a slow start this season and he is still only 8-7 with a 3.84 ERA and 1.39 WHIP overall.
However, Moore has allowed two runs or less in each of his last four starts and he is coming off of back-to-back scoreless outings, most recently limiting the Baltimore Orioles to six hits in 5.1 innings in a Rays’ 2-0 win last Friday. He is now facing an injury-depleted Toronto lineup sprinkled with recent AAA call-ups that is batting a dreadful .211 over the last 10 games overall while averaging a scant 2.40 runs per game over that span.
As bad as the Blue Jays have been offensively over the last 10 games, Tampa Bay has been worse batting at a .205 clip, and the Rays are at a hideous .189 in those 10 contests vs. right-handed pitchers while averaging 2.29 runs per nine innings against them.
That is welcome news for Toronto’s starter Alvarez, who has had some nice moments this year but has been mostly inconsistent, resulting in a 7-8 record overall with a 4.47 ERA and 1.38 WHIP. However, Alvarez is in a good cycle right now as he held the Athletics to three runs on only four hits last Thursday after surrendering only one run and five hits in seven innings vs. the potent Detroit Tigers in his prior outing.
Given the state of the Tampa Bay offense, there is no reason why Alvarez shut not pitch reasonably well again today, and that should be all that is required for these teams to go ‘under’ the total on Thursday as the current Jays’ lineup doesn’t expect to do much vs. Moore.
MLB Pick: Blue Jays, Rays ‘under’ 7½ (-120) ---
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