The Toronto Blue Jays will be looking to end a four-game losing streak as betting favourites on the road when they travel to Chicago on Friday to open a three-game weekend series with the White Sox as -140 chalk on the MLB odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Toronto enjoyed a much-needed day off on Thursday after closing out a three-game set against the Minnesota Twins with a 12-6 extra innings loss as a +106 underdog, marking the third time this season the club has been swept going into Friday night’s Blue Jays versus White Sox betting matchup at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Blue Jays were soundly beaten in each of their three losses to Minnesota, getting outscored by an overall margin of 25-9, and halting the momentum gained from their three-game sweep of Baltimore last weekend.
The club now owns a 7-12 record during the month of July, with their only consecutive wins coming against the bottom-feeding Orioles. The Blue Jays have also struggled on the road since May, going 8-16 over their past 24 after opening the season on a respectable 11-11 run in contests away from Rogers Centre.
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Despite the club’s struggles, Toronto takes the field as a road favorite on Friday for the first time since mid-June, sending Marcus Stroman to the mound. The Blue Jays are winless in four as road chalk, capped by a 1-0 loss in Tampa Bay as a -118 wager on June 13, and are a middling 6-8 overall while sporting negative odds on the road this season according to the OddsShark MLB Database.
The Blue Jays have enjoyed recent success against the White Sox, taking two of three from Chicago in an April series in Toronto, and compiling a 5-2 record in seven meetings since last June. However, the club has produced inconsistent results in recent visits to the South Side, posting consecutive wins just once while going 7-13 in their past 20 since June 2012.
The White Sox return home after closing out a seven-game western swing on Thursday with a 12-8 loss to the Los Angeles Angels as +171 underdogs. Chicago has played more consistent ball over the past two weeks after enduring a brutal 6-19 run that leaves them buried in fourth place in the AL Central standings.
Chicago has posted wins in six of its past 11 overall, and has been a steady performer at home of late, going 7-4 in its past 11, and also a solid 4-3 in its past seven games as a home underdog.
