The Rays are trying to earn a wild card, but their lack of hitting is catching up to them and their starter Jeremy Hellickson has shaky peripherals. With Brandon Morrow expected to be sharper, take the Blue Jays on Canada Friday.
Look for a mild upset by the home team north of the border Friday night when Jeremy Hellickson and the Tampa Bay Rays (71-60 overall, 36-30 away) take on Brandon Morrow and the Toronto Blue Jays (59-71 overall, 32-30 home) in the second game of a four-game series from Rogers Centre in Toronto, ON Canada at 7:07 ET.
The posted money line at Pinnacle Sports has Toronto as a tiny home underdog for this contestat current odds of +102.
The Rays would be out of the playoffs if the season ended today as they trail the Yankees by 4½ games in the American League East and they trail the surprising Baltimore Orioles by 1½ games for the second and last wild card spot. If Tampa Bay misses out on the playoffs, it will only have its hitting to blame.
The Rays have gotten fine pitching for the most part, in fact leading the Major Leagues with a 3,26 team ERA, but they also rank third to last in the majors in batting at just .237, leading only the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics. Tampa Bay produced just five hits while getting shut out for the second time in three games in the series opener here last night 2-0, wasting a nice pitching effort by Matt Moore.
They now look to turn things around with Hellickson on the mound, and they will probably need a big effort from him tonight considering that the Rays’ offense is batting only .205 vs. right-handed pitchers over the last 10 games while managing a paltry 2.35 runs per nine innings against them, which does not bode well for Tampa’s chances of scoring success vs. Morrow.
Unfortunately, we do not feel that Hellickson is as good as his common numbers. Yes, he has a 3.42 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP despite owning just an 8-9 record, but that losing mark makes more sense when looking at his Sabremetric numbers, where Hellickson’s 4.87 FIP lags badly behind his ERA and WHIP, as he is averaging only 5.88 strikeouts compared to 3.10 walks per nine innings while allowing 21 home runs in 24 starts covering 139.1 innings.
Now the Blue Jays have faded into oblivion due to a plethora of injuries, and most of their top hitters are still on the Disabled List. However, their starter Morrow is making his second start tonight since coming off of the DL, so he should be expected to be much sharper tonight.
Morrow is 7-5 with a 3.06 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP, and unlike Hellickson, Morrow has a fine 3.39 FIP to support those numbers. He has 74 strikeouts in 82.1 innings and was actually among the American League leaders in strikeouts when he went on the DL two months ago. He finally made his return last Saturday vs. the Orioles and was not at his sharpest, allowing four runs (two earned) on six hits in 4.2 innings.
While he was understandably rusty, Morrow did have good stuff with seven strikeouts in those 4.2 frames, so his arm is not an issue. Thus, we like him to bounce back strong tonight as he should have better command with that start under his belt.
With that in mind, look for the Blue Jays to hurt Tampa Bay’s playoff chances for the second straight night.
The posted money line at Pinnacle Sports has Toronto as a tiny home underdog for this contestat current odds of +102.
The Rays would be out of the playoffs if the season ended today as they trail the Yankees by 4½ games in the American League East and they trail the surprising Baltimore Orioles by 1½ games for the second and last wild card spot. If Tampa Bay misses out on the playoffs, it will only have its hitting to blame.The Rays have gotten fine pitching for the most part, in fact leading the Major Leagues with a 3,26 team ERA, but they also rank third to last in the majors in batting at just .237, leading only the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics. Tampa Bay produced just five hits while getting shut out for the second time in three games in the series opener here last night 2-0, wasting a nice pitching effort by Matt Moore.
They now look to turn things around with Hellickson on the mound, and they will probably need a big effort from him tonight considering that the Rays’ offense is batting only .205 vs. right-handed pitchers over the last 10 games while managing a paltry 2.35 runs per nine innings against them, which does not bode well for Tampa’s chances of scoring success vs. Morrow.
Unfortunately, we do not feel that Hellickson is as good as his common numbers. Yes, he has a 3.42 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP despite owning just an 8-9 record, but that losing mark makes more sense when looking at his Sabremetric numbers, where Hellickson’s 4.87 FIP lags badly behind his ERA and WHIP, as he is averaging only 5.88 strikeouts compared to 3.10 walks per nine innings while allowing 21 home runs in 24 starts covering 139.1 innings.
Now the Blue Jays have faded into oblivion due to a plethora of injuries, and most of their top hitters are still on the Disabled List. However, their starter Morrow is making his second start tonight since coming off of the DL, so he should be expected to be much sharper tonight.
Morrow is 7-5 with a 3.06 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP, and unlike Hellickson, Morrow has a fine 3.39 FIP to support those numbers. He has 74 strikeouts in 82.1 innings and was actually among the American League leaders in strikeouts when he went on the DL two months ago. He finally made his return last Saturday vs. the Orioles and was not at his sharpest, allowing four runs (two earned) on six hits in 4.2 innings.
While he was understandably rusty, Morrow did have good stuff with seven strikeouts in those 4.2 frames, so his arm is not an issue. Thus, we like him to bounce back strong tonight as he should have better command with that start under his belt.
With that in mind, look for the Blue Jays to hurt Tampa Bay’s playoff chances for the second straight night.
MLB Pick: Blue Jays +102 +++
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий