Two familiar foes will square off Tuesday in the American League Wild Card Game, when the Toronto Blue Jays host the Baltimore Orioles as -150 home favorites (bet $150 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.
The teams just played each other last week at the Rogers Centre, with Baltimore winning two of three but losing 10 of 19 meetings overall this year to surrender home-field advantage.
The Blue Jays will send Marcus Stroman (9-10, 4.37 ERA) to the mound as the starting pitcher on Tuesday, even though he struggled versus the Orioles during the regular season. Stroman went 1-2 in four starts against Baltimore with a 7.04 ERA, and he went 4-3 in 16 home starts with a 4.59 ERA.
Toronto has lost five of its last six games with Stroman on the hill overall, as he has failed to earn a win since beating the Houston Astros at home back on August 14.
Opposing Stroman for the Orioles will be Chris Tillman (16-6, 3.77), who is just 2-6 with a 7.01 ERA in his career when pitching at the Rogers Centre. Tillman walked away with a no-decision there last time out against the Blue Jays on Wednesday after allowing one earned run and six hits in 5.2 innings of an eventual 3-2 victory.
Tillman has gone 1-0 with a 3.63 ERA in four starts versus Toronto this season and owns an 8-3 mark and 2.97 ERA in 14 outings away from home overall.
While many bettors might expect to see a high-scoring affair between the two AL East teams, their recent series history has shown quite the opposite results. The under has cashed in each of the past seven meetings, four of which were played in Toronto.
Before that, though, six of the previous seven games finished over the total, with four of those also played at the Rogers Centre.
However, the last four starts for both Tillman and Stroman have also gone under, according to the Odds Shark MLB Database. In fact, 11 of Tillman’s previous 13 outings have all dipped below the total, 10 of which have seen eight runs or less scored.
The Blue Jays are listed at +1000 on the odds to win the World Series heading into Tuesday’s game, with the Orioles sitting at +2200. Toronto has a 56.9 percent chance of winning Tuesday’s game, according to website PredictionMachine.com.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com