2020-09-30 16:07:00 EDT
The Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays meet Wednesday in MLB Wild Card Round playoffs action from Tropicana Field.
This will be Game 2 of a best-of-three MLB Postseason series from the American League this week. In the opener of the set on Tuesday, Tampa Bay scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and were able to hang on for an eventual 3-1 win. Check back all season long for free MLB picks and MLB predictions at Sports Chat Place.
The Blue Jays out-hit the Rays 5-4 in the Tuesday loss, but could only come up with one run for their troubles. Lourdes Gurriel finished 2-for-4, and Bo Bichette had the only RBI. Starting pitcher Matt Shoemaker posted 3.0 innings with two hits, no earned and two strikeouts.
For the Wednesday Game 2 starting pitcher role, the Blue Jays will go with Hyun Jin Ryu. This year in 12 starts, Ryu went 5-2 with a 2.69 ERA and 72 Ks in 67.0 innings. Over his MLB postseason career, Ryu is 3-2 with a 4.05 ERA and 32 Ks in 40.0 innings in eight starts.
Over on the Rays’ side, Tuesday starter Blake Snell posted a nice outing in the victory with 5.2 innings, one hit, no earned, two walks and nine strikeouts. Manuel Margot accounted for most of the Tampa Bay offense with two hits, two RBI and a solo homer.
For Game 2’s starting pitcher duties, the Rays are sending out Tyler Glasnow. Over 11 starts this season, Glasnow went 5-1 with a 4.08 ERA and 91 Ks in 57.1 innings. In his MLB playoffs career Glasnow is 0-2 in two starts with a 7.71 ERA and eight Ks in 7.0 innings.
The Blue Jays are 4-1 in their last five overall and 4-1 in the last five versus the American League East. Toronto is 2-5 in the last seven playoff road games and 20-42 in the last 62 games as a road underdog.
Meanwhile, the Rays are 5-1 in their last six Wednesday games and 40-13 in their last 53 home games. Tampa Bay is 38-13 in their last 51 games on turf and 38-15 in their last 53 games as home favorite.
Pick: I’m going with the Rays. Granted, Glasnow is 0-2 with a hefty 7.71 ERA in his postseason career, and both those starts came last year. Though he hasn’t faced the Blue Jays yet this season, Glasnow had a 2.84 ERA in two starts versus Toronto in 2019; he’ll likely be fine. With Ryu on the mound on the other side, this should be a pretty good starting pitcher matchup. I like things to stay tight here until the later innings, with a couple of opportunistic hits from Tampa Bay proving to be the difference in a victory.
