The Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays will engage in a fierce battle to determine which team finds itself back on the winning track. Texas has been struggling recently, but was able to put up a quality offensive performance in the team’s last outing. On the other hand, Toronto fell from its perch atop AL East due to the injury bug biting some of their top players.
Toronto’s division-mate the New York Yankees, meanwhile, will play in an interleague game against the Cincinnati Reds, as both teams chase the division-leading Baltimore Orioles. You can view the preview for that game here.
Read on for a complete preview and prediction for the clash between the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays.
[sc:MultiSportArticles ]Texas Rangers vs. Toronto Blue Jays, Major League Baseball, Betting Preview and Prediction
Where: Rogers Center, Toronto
When: Friday, July 18, 7:07 PM ET
Line: Texas Rangers +145 vs. Toronto Blue Jays -165; total 8.0 – view all MLB lines
Betting on Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers are on an eight-game losing streak. However, their offense was able to show up in a 10-7 loss to the Los Angeles Angels in their last game before the All-Star Break.
[sc:MLB240banner ]Texas hit 10-for-34 in the loss to score the seven runs. The scoring was led by Alex Rios, who went 2-for-3 with three RBIs, and Adrian Beltre who hit 1-for-4 with an RBI. Rios will be the batter to watch against Toronto. The batter has hit .278 with two homers and five RBIs against Toronto’s pitcher R.A. Dickey.
The Rangers will be starting Yu Darvish (8-5, 2.97 ERA) on the mound. Darvish hasn’t been too impressive over his last three starts, surrendering 10 runs. However, he pitched a gem against the Minnesota Twins for eight scoreless innings. Darvish will severely limit a Toronto side that’s missing some of its key players due to injury.
The Texas Rangers are 1-4 in Darvish’ last 5 starts.
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Betting on Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays have struggled, going 2-10 in their last 10 games. In their most recent loss, the Blue Jays were defeated by the Tampa Bay Rays 3-0 as Toronto’s offense was blanked.
Toronto is fifth-best in runs scored (431) and seventh in the majors for batting average hitting .258. However, injuries to three of their key players have recently hampered their offensive output. The team has severely missed Edwin Encarnacion (team leader in home runs with 26), Adam Lind (third-highest batting average of the Blue Jays with .320), and Brett Lawrie (another significant contributor who’s hitting .244 this season) in their recent losses.
Aside from their injury problems, Melky Cabrera, one of the team’s leading batters, has struggled in the past two outings against Tampa Bay, going 0-for-5 in one of the contests.
With three key offensive players on the disabled list, Toronto will have to rely on starter R.A. Dickey (7-9, 3.82 ERA) to limit Texas’ offense. In one of his more recent outings, Dickey kept the L.A. Angels scoreless for seven innings. Texas batters have only hit .213 against Dickey in their careers.
Dickey’s team is 2-1 in his three career starts against the Rangers.
Writer’s Prediction
Yu Darvish takes advantage of Toronto’s missing batters. Take the Rangers to snap their losing streak with a win over Toronto.
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