1st Sept - Orioles vs Rays

A fifth straight loss on Monday night compounded the Baltimore Orioles and their recent struggles. It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago that the Orioles looked destined to reach the playoffs again. However, they’ve found it hard to score or stop runs in a slump that now sees them 11 games back from the AL East leading Blue Jays. They are still within reach of a Wildcard spot, only 5.5 games back, but they need to break out of their current slump.

Chris Tillman is looking to snap his own losing streak, he’s lost his two starts, but has pitched pretty well over the course of the season with a 9-9 record and 4.58 record. Tillman has been hurt late in starts recently, it’ll be interesting to see how quickly Baltimore manager Buck Showalter pulls him out if he gets into trouble.

The Rays are in a similar position, but they’re playing better baseball and they are usually able to rely on their pitching and defence. They’ve lost a pair of tough recent series to the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals in recent weeks, they’ll be desperate to take the series against Baltimore. They’re also playing the second game of a nine-game stretch on the road. Tim Beckham and Evan Longoria both swung the bat well in the first game of the series, which is a definite positive.

Drew Smyly pitches for Tampa Bay. He missed three months through injury and has struggled to last deep into the games since returning going 1-1 with an ERA of close to six in three starts.

Three Reasons for Betting Tips

1. Tillman

Tillman has been pitching pretty well. He’s had some poor luck and has thrown away some decent situations. We’ll back him to put in a quality start here.

2. Smyly injury difficult

The Rays rely somewhat on good defence and pitching. The bullpen hasn’t been overworked lately, but they’ll be challenged needing to find some big innings to cover for Smyly in this one.

3. Orioles odds

The odds on Baltimore winning and scoring runs are great right now, because of their poor run. Games should be picked selectively, but we still think this is a decent ball club that will put together another positive run before the end of this season.

Want daily Baseball tips? There’s still time to bet on our MLB accumulator