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New York Yankees @ Toronto Blue Jays – 1.07PM ET
The Yankees and Blue Jays will face off for the second time in two days to kick off our Wednesday schedule of MLB games.
Wednesday’s clash will conclude the second set of games between New York and Toronto, after the Blue Jays won two of the opening three games against Yankees in New York.
Now, as a result of their 7-3 victory over New York on Tuesday, the Blue Jays have evened the ledger heading into their third game of this set, and established a 3-2 lead in the overall regular season head to head.
Bo Bichette scored twice for Toronto from his two hits, while Hyun-jin Ryu threw seven strikeouts from his 6.2 scoreless innings at the mound.
We’re in the 4th inning.
Bo Bichette already has FIVE RBI 😳 pic.twitter.com/AIhxRKwIPn
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) April 11, 2021
As a result of Tuesday’s game, both the Yankees and Blue Jays will enter Wednesday’s encounter with a 5-6 record.
The Yankees have been one of the best pitching rotations in the league prior to Tuesday’s loss, pitching at an ERA of 2.74 through their first 10 games, which was the third best in the league. However, New York lacked consistency at the mound on Tuesday, allowing 10 hits and seven runs through eight innings.
Tuesday was the seventh occurrence in 11 games that has seen New York score three runs or fewer this season, as their lineup continues to struggle.
Now with a 3-2 record over the Yankees through five games, Toronto currently holds a 17-14 aggregate score over New York heading into Wednesday’s encounter.
With an advantage in the season head to head record and a more impactful production from their batting group, we like the Blue Jays to win this encounter in Toronto as underdogs.
MLB Pick – Toronto Blue Jays (+114)
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Chicago Cubs @ Milwaukee Brewers – 1.40PM ET
The Chicago Cubs will continue their second set of games against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday afternoon.
Although they led 2-1 until the top of the eighth, Milwaukee failed to score in eight of the nine innings against a weak Cubs bullpen, which meant a two run eighth inning from the Cubs was enough to secure them the victory on Tuesday.
Wilson Contreras scored two runs from his three at bats for Chicago, which proved to be the difference in the 3-2 victory.
Heading into Wednesday’s match, Chicago will welcome Jake Arrieta back to the mound. Arrieta is 2-0 heading into his third start of the season, pitching at an ERA of 2.25 with nine strikeouts from his 12 innings this year.
Prior to Tuesday’s clash, the Brewers were the 26th ranked team in the league when looking at batting average .207.
We didn’t see enough on Tuesday to suggest that this struggling Brewers lineup is capable of putting up a competitive run total against Cubs. Especially when coming up against a more experienced rotation on Wednesday, headlined by Arrieta.
MLB Pick – Chicago Cubs (+150)
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Cincinnati Reds @ San Francisco Giants – 3.45PM ET
The Reds and Giants will finish off their three game set in San Francisco on Wednesday, with the ledger currently tied at 1-1.
Following the Reds 3-0 victory on Monday, both Cincinnati and San Francisco’s batting groups were not going to be held down for a second consecutive game, with the two clubs combining for an eight run first inning in Tuesday’s matchup.
In Tuesday’s encounter, Cincinnati took on San Francisco without Tyler Naquin. Naquin has hit the equal most home runs in the league this season (5), to go along with 14 RBIs, which is the equal second most. Without Naquin in the lineup, Cincinnati had six individual run scorers on Tuesday, however it wasn’t enough to get the Reds over the line.
Question: Who currently leads the league in home runs?
Answer: Tyler Naquin pic.twitter.com/bMX1htC8RV
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 10, 2021
As for the Giants, Evan Longoria scored twice from his two hits, which proved to be the difference in San Francisco’s 7-6 victory. This was one of the Giants best batting performances of the season, as San Francisco had previously been hitting at a team batting average of .192, the second worst in the league.
Contrastingly, Cincinnati’s batting average of .277 was the fourth best in the league prior to Tuesday’s game, and their 69 runs were 11 runs greater than the next best team in the Major League.
Tuesday was only the second time this season that the Giants scored seven runs in a game. Whereas Cincinnati’s batting group has shown time and time again this year that they are capable of consistently hitting winning scores.
With this in mind, we can’t see San Francisco having another big night at the plate, especially when coming up against a consistently prolific scoring team in Cincinnati.
MLB Pick – Cincinnati Reds (-118)
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Detroit Tigers @ Houston Astros – 7.10PM ET
Heading into the final game of their set against the Astros in Houston, the Detroit Tigers are on the verge of one of the unlikeliest sweeps of the young season.
Since starting the season with six wins from their first seven games, the Astros have dropped four consecutive matches against the A’s (twice) and Tigers (twice). Houston has been outscored 9-27 in that time.
In their most recent clash against Detroit on Tuesday, Jake Odorizzi was hit seven times for five earned runs in his 3.1 innings at the mound.
Contrastingly, Tuesday was Detroit’s second consecutive victory over Houston, after beating the Astros 6-2 on Monday to snap their own four game losing streak. The Tigers have outscored the Astros 14-4 in the first two games of their set, as Detroit will look to complete the sweep on Wednesday night in Houston.
Jeimer Candelario and Wilson Ramos both scored two runs for the Tigers in Tuesday’s 8-2 victory.
Prior to Tuesday’s game between these two clubs, Houston had scored the equal second most run in the season to date (58). However, having only scored nine runs as a team during their recent four game losing streak, it is tough to see the Astros breaking batting slump. Although if there was ever a team to do it against, Detroit would be that team.
The Tigers were the 29th ranked team in the league when looking at ERA, with an average of 5.52 through their first ten games. As well as that, Detroit’s rotation had allowed the ninth most hits in the league prior to Tuesday’s game against Houston.
Although the Astros have lost each of their past four games, we believe that their lineup is capable of correcting back to its early season form. Especially when coming up against a Tigers rotation that has admittedly struggled up until this point of the season.
MLB Pick – Houston Astros (-255)
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Colorado Rockies @ Los Angeles Dodgers – 10.10PM ET
The Dodgers will look to continue their streak of wins in Los Angeles when they take on the Rockies in the second of three games between these two clubs in LA.
In their first matchup of the season on Tuesday, the Dodgers pitched a shutout, recording a 7-0 victory over Colorado.
Corey Seager scored three runs on Tuesday, propelling himself into the top five run scorers in the MLB after 11 games. While at the mound, Trevor Bauer threw nine strikeouts in his seven scoreless innings, taking him to a league high 38 strikeouts this season.
First of the season for @coreyseager_5. 💪 pic.twitter.com/upcGzxeYf6
— MLB (@MLB) April 14, 2021
Tuesday’s 7-0 loss was Colorado’s second consecutive shutout defeat of the season, having been defeated 4-0 by the Giants on Sunday.
Having failed to score a singular run in their past two outings, it is tough to rationalise picking the Rockies to get an upset in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
On a positive note, Colorado are starting Jon Gray at the mound on Wednesday. Gray has one win from his one start this season and has an ERA of 1.54 as well as 12 strikeouts.
However, as much of an improvement as Gray will be at the mound, we still don’t see the Rockies lineup putting up a defendable score against the Dodgers in LA, especially when they are trying to outscore the talent riddled reigning champions batting group that features the likes of Betts, Seager, Muncy and Taylor.
MLB Pick – Los Angeles Dodgers (-310)
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*Odds and spreads correct at time of publication, courtesy of FanDuel.
