Jason Sharpe GOW
5 Unit Play Take #972 Tampa Bay -147 over Toronto (7:10pm est):
The Tampa Bay Rays look like a team ready to pop off a big winning streak. Couple of key things going for the Rays right now makes them a solid 'under the radar' team in my eyes and one we should start supporting at the betting windows over the next few weeks before the betting market catches up to this very good baseball team.
The Rays haven't got a break from the schedule makers this season as they have only played 49 homes games so far this season, the lowest in the Major Leagues at this time and 11 less than the New York Yankees have played. They look a whole different team since the call up of Desmond Jennings to their lineup a little over a week ago. The new Rays lead off hitter has added a new dimension that has been missing from this year's Tampa Bay team. Since the rookie's call-up nine game ago, the Rays are fourth in the American League in on-base percentage and fifth in runs scored averaging over five runs per contest. These are noticeably big differences as the team on-base average is up by 70 points and the runs scored has also gone up from 4.1 runs per game to a whole run higher.
On the mound David Price takes the ball here tonight. It looks on paper like Price is struggling of late but a lot of his troubles have come from the fact three of his last four games have come against the Yankees and Red Sox, easily the two best offenses in baseball this year.
The Toronto Blue Jays offense has really been sputtering of late. In their last nine games the Jays rank second from the bottom in the A.L with just a .308 OBA during this time. The reason for this big play here though revolves more around the Jays starter Ricky Romero in this one. Romero has really hit a wall going back about six starts. Though he comes off a solid effort last out, the previous four outings for Romero show an ERA just below 6.00. Not only are his numbers off their seasonal norm but so has his velocity. Romero looks like he has lost a tick or two on his fast ball of late and combine this with his control problems, has made Romero look like an average pitcher at best this past month.
The Rays know it's pretty much now or never with the hole they have too dig out of. With Jennings at the top of their lineup this team now has the offensive firepower too match their strong starting pitching. Keep in mind this was a team that won their division last season with 96 wins and I am quite sure they won't go away without a big time fight. I feel their big run starts on this ten game home stand. Take Tampa Bay here.