The Rays are somehow still in first place despite their worst stretch of the season, and the last-place Blue Jays smell blood.
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Best BetRays
Tampa Bay is still the better team even mid-skid — a 56-42 record and a first-place spot don't evaporate over 5 bad games. Toronto is 46-53 for a reason, and its lineup is stretched thinner than the Rays' by a wide margin. Backing the Rays here is a bet that a good team's slump ends before a bad team's injuries do.
Rays
+Still first place in AL East at 56-42
+Seymour capable of dominant starts (12 K's vs Yanks)
Tampa Bay rolls into Toronto having dropped 5 straight, capped by a four-game sweep in Boston where the offense went ice cold at the worst time. Ian Seymour (6-2, 4.79 ERA) gets the ball for the Rays, and he's been a study in extremes lately — a career-high 12-strikeout gem against the Yankees, then a 3-inning, 3-run clunker in his last outing against the Red Sox. Toronto hasn't announced its starter for this one.
The Blue Jays snapped their own skid last week when Shane Bieber tossed 6 shutout innings against the White Sox, but the feel-good vibes didn't last — Chicago answered right back with a 3-0 shutout of its own the very next day. Toronto's rotation is already thin without Max Scherzer, whose rehab has been paused again after he needed cortisone shots in his throwing thumb, and the lineup is missing Addison Barger, Anthony Santander and Jesus Sanchez.
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Both clubs are banged up in the outfield. Tampa Bay is still without Jake Fraley, who got pulled off his rehab assignment after feeling something near his hernia surgery site, and Gavin Lux was yanked off his own rehab stint this week with shoulder trouble. Toronto's answer to those absences has largely been journeymen and reserves plugging holes in a lineup that's scored 3 or fewer runs in 3 of its last 5 games.
Tampa Bay Rays
Jul 22?@ Blue Jays—
Jul 21?@ Blue Jays—
Jul 20?@ Blue Jays—
Toronto Blue Jays
Jul 22?vs Rays—
Jul 21?vs Rays—
Jul 20?vs Rays—
Recent form.
The gap in the standings tells the real story here: Tampa Bay sits at 56-42 and in first place in the AL East, while Toronto is 46-53 and stuck in the division basement. But form is form, and right now the Rays are the ones playing scared, going 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position in that Sunday finale at Fenway. If there's a spot for Toronto to steal one, a slumping division leader on the road is exactly it.
Tampa Bay Rays
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Toronto Blue Jays
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Kevin Cash needs his lineup to remember how to hit with guys on base, and John Schneider needs literally anyone healthy to step up behind an already-thin rotation. Whoever fixes their problem first probably wins this series.
