{"id":14671,"date":"2011-04-05T08:33:36","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T13:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14671"},"modified":"2011-04-05T08:33:36","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T13:33:36","slug":"mlb-betting-preview-oakland-athletics-at-toronto-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-betting-preview-oakland-athletics-at-toronto-blue-jays-14671\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Betting Preview: Oakland Athletics at Toronto Blue Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays welcome in the Oakland Athletics for a three-game set at the Rogers Centre starting on Tuesday night<\/p>\n

Oakland Athletics at Toronto Blue Jays<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Toronto Blue Jays welcome in the Oakland Athletics to the Rogers Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oakland committed seven errors over its weekend series against Seattle that caused the team to drop two of three games in its opening series.\u00a0 \u201cOur defense has been stinking up the field and the clubhouse,\u201d center Coco Crisp stated.\u00a0 The Athletics now head out on the road for the first time this season, which could add to the team\u2019s problems due to the squad going 34-47 on the road a season ago.\u00a0 Oakland is beginning an important nine-game road trip and will look to keep pace early with AL champion Texas in the West.\u00a0 The average age on the A\u2019s opening roster is 28.96 years, which is nearly two years older than last year (27.16).\u00a0 Oakland is 69-93 on the road the past two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

Athletics starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy is set to make his first start with the franchise and first since October 2, 2009.\u00a0 McCarthy was limited to 22 starts over the past three seasons because of shoulder problems.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty solid rotation I\u2019m joining and it\u2019s exciting to know I have to do my part to hold up my end of the bargain,\u201d McCarthy stated.\u00a0 The right-hander is 3-2 with a 3.62 ERA in eight career appearances (five starts) against the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

Toronto homered six times in its two wins and once in its loss against Minnesota in its season-opening series.\u00a0 The Blue Jays power game is led by outfielder Jose Bautista, who has gone 5 for 11 with two solo homers this season, after hitting a major league-leading 54 homers and 124 RBIs last season.\u00a0 His early season success may hit a snag when facing the Athletics pitching staff, considering his .115 average against Oakland was his worst against an AL opponent.\u00a0 Toronto has enjoyed the backing of its fans in the early going this season, as the announced attendance for the first three games of the season was 110,683.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a great atmosphere,\u201d said utility player Jayson Nix.\u00a0 \u201cBeing in the dome, it\u2019s pretty loud.\u00a0 The fans get into it and they\u2019re pretty energetic fans.\u201d\u00a0 Toronto is 92-73 at home over the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays starting pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes makes his first start with his new team tonight after spending the last four seasons on and off the Braves\u2019 pitching staff.\u00a0 Reyes has dropped 10 consecutive decisions since his last win, which came on June 13, 2008, in an interleague game against the Angels.\u00a0 He is coming off a strong Spring Training that earned him this shot at reviving his career.\u00a0 In 23 exhibition, he compiled a 3.52 ERA and a strikeouts-to-walks ratio of 18-8.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Blue Jays due to their 8-2 home record, while the Athletics are 23-49 following an off day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays welcome in the Oakland Athletics for a three-game set at the Rogers Centre starting on Tuesday night Oakland Athletics at Toronto Blue Jays Oakland committed seven errors over its weekend series against Seattle that caused the team to drop two of three games in its opening series.\u00a0 \u201cOur defense has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[4816,4815,2401,1449,223],"class_list":["post-14671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-brandon-mccarthy","tag-jo-jo-reyes","tag-jose-bautista","tag-oakland-athletics","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14672,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14671\/revisions\/14672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}