Tuesday MLB Best Bet: Athletics vs. Blue Jays

Written by Jake Thompson
Tuesday, 05 April 2011 21:02

Our Tuesday MLB best bet will focus on the Blue Jays and the Athletics.

The Oakland Athletics (1-2) and the Toronto Blue Jays (2-1) will meet up at 7:07 PM ET, and this game has earned the honor of being our MLB best bet for Tuesday.  Our MLB best bet for Monday on the Yankees won easily and we hope that the Tuesday version will be just as strong of a call.  Las Vegas sportsbooks have made the home-team Blue Jays very small favorites for this one and close to 70% of tracked sports bettors are putting their money on Toronto.

Starting pitchers for today show Brandon McCarthy going for the Athletics and left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes taking the mound for the Blue Jays.  McCarthy was solid enough in spring ball and has given up just 7 earned runs on 17 hits over his last 4 starts against the Blue Jays, totaling 24.1 innings.  His ability to limit home runs will be a key against a free-swinging Toronto squad that feasts on the long ball.  Reyes has also had a nice spring and allowed 2 earned runs on 8 hits over 5 innings in his lone career start against the Athletics.  He’s not a dominant pitcher but should do enough to keep the game close enough to give the Blue Jays a chance to win.

Although it’s tough to tell how teams are hitting with such a small sample size to the season, Toronto has scored 22 runs in 3 games and is hitting .295 on the season.  The Athletics did not hit Felix Hernandez or Jason Vargas but rebounded last time out to put up 7 runs against Doug Fister.  Oakland is hitting just .232 on the year and .200 against lefties so they’ll have to start swinging the bat a little better if they want to put up runs on Reyes.  Although I don’t think that Toronto’s bullpen will be better than Oakland’s this year, it is worth noting that the Athletics’ relievers have a 5.79 ERA while the Blue Jays’ come in at just 1.04.

Jose Bautista is coming off a 54 home run season but will not be in the lineup for the Blue Jays in this one after he was forced to leave the team to deal with a personal matter.  It is not known how long the star slugger will be out but it definitely makes Toronto an easier team to pitch against.  McCarthy should have another strong outing against the Blue Jays and I’m still not sure how much I trust Reyes after his constant poor outings that some chalk up to injuries.  I think Oakland is the play here as a small underdog and I’ll make them the Tuesday MLB best bet.

Athletics 5

Blue Jays 3