The Toronto Blue Jays saw a four-game win streak come to an end with Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox, but hope to get back on track as they embark on their first road trip of the season in Arlington on Friday. Toronto takes on the Texas Rangers in a pick’em on the MLB odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Toronto got its campaign off to a slow start, dropping a pair of decisions to the New York Yankees before finding its groove at the plate, tallying 6.6 runs per game during the 4-1 run they take into Friday night’s Blue Jays versus Rangers betting matchup at Globe Life Park.
Despite their recent offensive outburst, it has been the UNDER that has regularly rewarded bettors on the totals during the first week of the season, going 5-2 in the Blue Jays’ first seven outings, including Wednesday’s victory over Chicago as heavy -212 favourites.
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The Blue Jays will be looking for more from their starting rotation during their nine-game road trip. The club’s starters have combined to produce a 1-2 record through the first week of the season. However, Friday’s starter Marco Estrada allowed four hits and three runs in seven solid innings against the New York Yankees in his first start of the year last Saturday, but failed to get the decision in Toronto’s 5-3 win as a -102 wager.
Estrada remained a steadying force during the Blue Jays’ shaky 2017 season, going 10-9 with a 4.98 ERA, but got rocked for six earned runs over 3.2 innings in his last start in Texas, a 7-6 Toronto win as -123 chalk last June 19.
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The Blue Jays have built a fierce rivalry with Texas, rooted in their chippy post-season confrontations with the Rangers in 2015 and 2016. Toronto has taken 14 of the last 20 meetings from the Rangers, a run that started with its comeback from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Texas in five games in the 2015 ALDS.
However, the club has produced mixed results in recent visits to Arlington, going 5-4 during that run, and surrendering an average of seven runs per game while splitting a four-game set in Texas last June.
The Rangers return home after earning the split in a four-game series in Oakland on Thursday with a 6-3 win over the A’s as +146 underdogs, but have failed to record consecutive wins during a 3-5 start to the season.
Texas is coming off a disappointing 78-84 campaign in 2017, and currently sits near the bottom of the World Series odds at a distant +20000.
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