The Toronto Blue Jays will be gunning for a fourth straight win against a National League opponent when they open a three-game series with the Cincinnati Reds on Monday as -200 favourites on the MLB betting lines at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Toronto picked up just one win in its first eight inter-league contests this season, but is unbeaten in three dates with National League opponents going into Monday night’s Reds vs. Blue Jays betting matchup at the Rogers Centre.
Following a dismal 2-11 start to the season, the Blue Jays have returned to contention in the AL East standings with wins in 11 of their past 18 games.
Toronto saw a five-game winning streak end on Sunday with a 3-1 loss to the Texas Rangers as -175 betting chalk, but climbed to 7.5 games back of the first-place New York Yankees after trailing by 10.5 games as recently as May 9.
Sunday’s loss to Texas represents Toronto’s worst offensive performance in three weeks. The Blue Jays had averaged 5.25 runs per game in their previous eight outings, while the club’s sluggers have rediscovered the long ball with 40 total home runs so far in the month of May.
Despite Sunday’s power outage the Blue Jays remain a solid 10-4 in their past 14 games at Rogers Centre, claiming series wins in four of their past five, and halting a 2-7 run on home turf.
The Reds make their first trip to Toronto since 2009 after taking two of three from the Philadelphia Phillies over the weekend, capped by an 8-4 victory as -120 road favourites on Sunday afternoon.
That marks the first road series win for Cincinnati since early April, with the Reds going 5-11 in 16 road games since then, including sweeps at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs.
Cincinnati has produced streaky results over the first quarter of the MLB campaign, winning five of eight since ending a seven-game slide, but remains in the hunt in the NL Central, just 2.5 games back of the division-leading Brewers despite a 24-25 record.
The Reds have regularly flexed their offensive muscle, averaging six runs per game over their past eight games, but have seen the run total finish UNDER in four of their past six, according to the OddsShark MLB Database, ending a seven-game run for the OVER.
The Blue Jays dropped two of three to Cincinnati the last time these teams met in 2014. However, Toronto is 9-6 in 15 all-time interleague matchups with the Reds, including a 4-2 record in six previous dates at the Rogers Centre.
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