Halladay Faces O’s
Before Roy Halladay attempts to continue his dominance over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, the Toronto Blue Jays hope to finish what they started the night before.
The Blue Jays will try to hold on to their one-run lead as the teams continue play from Wednesday’s suspended game before following with the series finale Thursday afternoon at Camden Yards.
Oddsmakers from SBG Global have made Toronto -135 money line favorites (MLB Odds) for tonight’s game, the over/under has been set at 8 total runs (Matchup). Current public betting information shows that 68% of bets for this game have been placed on Toronto -135 (View MLB Bet Percentages).
Toronto (49-51) led 2-1 with two outs and Lyle Overbay on third base in the top of the sixth inning when play was suspended after a lengthy rain delay Wednesday. The game will be picked up from that point Thursday afternoon as the Blue Jays look for a second straight win after falling 8-3 to the Orioles (48-51) in the series opener.
Overbay and Marco Scutaro each drove in runs for Toronto, while Melvin Mora had an RBI for Baltimore in a game that was dominated by starting pitchers A.J. Burnett of Toronto and Baltimore’s Jeremy Guthrie.
"When you don’t have results, I guess you could think of it as wasted,” Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said of Burnett’s performance. "We’ll start over tomorrow in the sixth inning, go from there and hopefully get a win.”
Overbay is batting .333 (8-for-24) in his last seven games for Toronto, which had lost three of five prior to Wednesday’s contest.
Mora, meanwhile, looks to continue his torrid homestand, where he’s 13-for-26 with four homers and 15 RBIs through seven games.
A victory in the suspended game for Toronto would leave the Blue Jays 3-3 on their seven-game trip and in position to win their first road stretch since going 10-6 at Cleveland, Minnesota and Philadelphia from May 9-18.
Having Halladay (11-7, 2.89 ERA) on the mound in the finale will benefit the Blue Jays no matter what’s at stake.
The Blue Jays’ ace is 16-4 with a 3.09 ERA in 23 games against Baltimore and is looking for an eighth straight win versus the Orioles.
Halladay, who is 7-0 with a 2.78 ERA over his last nine starts against the Orioles since losing at Baltimore on May 4, 2005, allowed four runs in 7 2-3 innings of the Blue Jays’ 5-4 home win over their AL East rivals on June 8.
In his most recent outing overall, the right-hander allowed five runs and eight hits in six innings of a 6-4 loss at Tampa Bay on Saturday to snap a three-game winning streak and lose for the first time since June 14.
"You’ve got to try to get back to your job," said Halladay, who gave up a grand slam to Evan Longoria in the Rays’ five-run sixth inning.
Baltimore, which is 3-3 on its season-high 11-game homestand, counters with Daniel Cabrera (6-5, 4.57), who is 1-4 over his last 11 starts.
Cabrera allowed six earned runs – all in the first inning – and five hits in five innings of an 11-10 10-inning win over Detroit on Saturday. He is 0-1 in his three outings since posting a complete-game victory over Kansas City on July 2.
"The ball just wasn’t coming out of Cabrera’s hand very good," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. "There wasn’t much finish to it."
The right-hander is 4-7 with a 4.48 ERA against Toronto and allowed four runs in 6 1-3 innings of a 7-6 loss to the Blue Jays on July 8.
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