David Troy
Videos by OutKick
Angels vs. Blue Jays, 3:07 ET
I genuinely wonder from everyone what you think of the idea that there are now six playoff spots in baseball. There are three division winners and three Wild Card winners. I personally think that if they were adding more teams to the playoffs, they probably should shorten the regular season. It just means that they are going to play baseball even later into the year. Today, we get two teams desperately looking to get into the playoffs in the Angels and Blue Jays.
The Angels are getting hot at just the right time. I mean, having the certain MVP on your team always helps, but the rest of the team seems to be clicking at the right time as well. Mike Trout is injured but you have to imagine he gives them a boost when he gets back. I think the best thing for baseball would be having not only Trout in the playoffs, but Shohei Ohtani. I can’t imagine most people watch random baseball games, but I think the Angels would likely have Ohtani on the mound for the game and people would tune in. Today though, they put Reid Detmers on the hill in hopes of getting a game from the Blue Jays. Detmers is struggling on the road this season with a 5.71 ERA, which is about a full run and a half higher than his overall ERA. He had a great June, but has come back down to Earth in July with 15 earned runs allowed over 20.1 innings. Seven of those game in one game, so the eight earned over 17 innings is a little more tolerable. The Blue Jays haven’t been that great against him with just nine hits over 43 at-bats.
The Blue Jays are having a good season, but still can’t seem to get over the hump of being a third-place team. Their pitching has been better than I expected this season, and that is with the terrible results posted from today’s starter. The hitting is great, as expected. There aren’t too many holes in this lineup and I think they will be hard for even the most talented pitcher to navigate. Today, the Blue Jays are looking to get some solid progress from their starter, Alek Manoah. Manoah has a 6.10 ERA on the season and hasn’t shown much improvement after his callup from the minors. He posted a solid enough game against the Mariners on the road in his last outing. He allowed just three earned runs over 5.1 innings. He still has walked nine batters over the past eight innings which is playing with fire. He has been particularly bad at home with a 9.00 ERA, allowing 31 earned runs over 31 innings. The Angels hitters have only gotten five hits over 27 at-bats against Manoah.
It is hard to tell what version of Manoah you will get, but I don’t trust him in Toronto right now. I think the Angels are playing very good baseball right now as well. The track record from the Blue Jays against Detmers also is encouraging. I’ll take the Angels at plus money against Toronto. The total seems appropriate at nine.
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