The Toronto Blue Jays will be looking to hold on to their position atop the AL wild card standings when they open a three-game weekend series with the visiting Minnesota Twins on Friday as -210 favourites on the MLB odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Toronto enjoyed a well-earned day off on Thursday after taking two of three from the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays, and has now tallied wins in 16 of its last 19 contests going into Friday night’s matchup at the Rogers Centre.
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In addition to pulling them even with the Boston Red Sox atop the AL wild card standings, the Blue Jays’ current surge has also given them a big boost on the World Series odds. The club now sits just shy of the favourites as a +1800 wager to claim its first World Series title since 1993, well ahead of the lengthy +4000 odds the team sported at the start of the season.
The Blue Jays still have plenty of work to do to nail down a postseason berth, though, starting this weekend with the first of two series with Minnesota over the next 10 days. Friday night marks the first meeting between these two teams since May 2019. Toronto has struggled in recent clashes with the Twins, falling to defeat in eight of 11 clashes, and has also dropped eight of nine dates with Minnesota at the Rogers Centre since 2016.
However, it is a very different Twins team arriving in town this weekend. After finishing among the top two in the AL Central in five of the past six years, the Twins have tumbled to the bottom of the divisional standings this season. Set as +170 underdogs at sports betting sites for Friday’s contest, the Twins limp into town on a dismal 2-6 run, capped by a brutal 12-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night.
The Twins’ recent slide has been marked by high-scoring affairs. The team has allowed over five runs per game over its past eight contests, and has seen the OVER pay out on the totals in five of its past seven contests.
Complicating matters further for the Twins is their overall shaky performance on the road this season. Minnesota sports the third worst road record in the AL, leading only Texas and Baltimore with just 30 victories away from their home at Target Field. However, they have shown signs of turning things around in recent weeks, going 6-5 in their past 11 road dates, and have allowed fewer than three runs per game over their past six away contests.
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