The Tampa Bay Rays will play the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of their series at Rogers Centre on Monday night.
The Tampa Bay Rays are 78-60 this season and have lost two games in a row. Tampa Bay is coming off of a series loss against the Yankees, where they lost two out of three games. The Tampa Bay pitching staff has a 3.34 ERA, a 1.14 WHIP, and a .231 opponent batting average this season. The Rays offense has scored 586 runs with a .243 batting average and a .311 on base percentage. Randy Arozarena is batting .270 with 19 home runs and 76 RBI’s for the Rays this season. The projected starter for Tampa Bay is Ryan Yarbrough, who is 1-8 with a 4.69 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP over 71 innings pitched this season.
The Toronto Blue Jays are 78-61 this season and have won three of their last four games. Toronto is coming off of a series win against Texas, where they won two out of three games played. The Toronto pitching staff has a 3.89 ERA, a 1.23 WHIP, and a .248 opponent batting average. The Blue Jays offense has scored 653 runs with a .262 batting average and a .327 on base percentage this year. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is batting .277 with 27 home runs and 82 RBI’s for the Blue Jays this season. The projected starter for Toronto is Jose Berrios, who is 10-5 with a 5.23 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP over 146.1 innings pitched this season.
This is a crucial series for the AL playoff picture as these two teams are only separated by 0.5 games. Currently, Tampa Bay is in the first wild card spot and Toronto is in the third spot, with Seattle sitting in the second spot. The Yankees are sitting in first place in the AL East, 5.5 games up on the Rays and 6 games on the Blue Jays. Toronto is starting Jose Berrios, who has allowed nine earned runs over his last 24 innings pitched. For the Rays, Ryan Yarbrough has allowed 0 earned runs four of his last five appearances. I am taking Tampa Bay on the road.
AUTHOR: David Racey
Mitch's Take...
