Man Oh Manoah! Expect Blue Jays Starter to Dominate Pirates

Blue Jays vs. Pirates, 6:35 ET

Some days go your way, others don't. Wow, what an opening line, right? Well, let me explain. On Wednesday, we were in decent spots with all three plays. Then, the wheels fell off late with just about all of them. Yesterday we coasted in just about every game. There wasn't a sweat in any of them as we went to a beautiful 4-0 day. It was nice to get our money back right away, but we need to keep rolling!

We start with the Blue Jays. If the season ended today, the Blue Jays would make the playoffs as the last wild card winner. Unfortunately for them, the season doesn't end today so the stress and pressure is on them as they have multiple teams within reasonable striking distance of them. One of them is in their division - the Orioles. Tonight, they send a guy who hasn't been their biggest name in the rotation, but he has definitely been the best, Alek Manoah. He is having a great campaign this year, posting a 2.60 ERA, and most of all he has been consistent in every situation on the season. He has increased his ERA the last two months - both are in the threes. His last two starts have been very solid, even if Toronto has wasted them with two losses. In those two starts, he has gone 13 innings and allowed just two earned runs.

On the other side, the Pirates are using Johan Oviedo to start this game. This is his first game for the Pirates after being with the Cardinals until the end of July. He did have one start this season, it was his first appearance of the year, a 6-1 loss to the Cubs. After that game, he never pitched more than 2.2 innings. I can't imagine he goes super deep in this game, but he has been in the minors pitching very well in the last month. If he gets to five innings, I think the Pirates will be very happy with the results that they get from him.

While I think it is conceivable that Oviedo pitches well in this game and positions the Pirates to be competitive, I think it is more likely that the Blue Jays win both at "half-time" and the full game. I could see the Blue Jays scoring a ton on Oviedo, and see Manoah holding the Pirates to no runs. That makes playing the total a bit more difficult, though I somewhat like the Pirates team total under 2.5. Instead, I like the Blue Jays 1st 5 moneyline/full game Game Parlay at -120. I'll also be playing Alek Manoah to record a win today at -110.

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