MLB Lock Alert – Blue Jays Visit the Padres

The Blue Jays will look to shake off the shellacking they just took in Colorado as the Rockies swept the three game series quite handily thanks to solid pitching and timely hitting. It doesn’t get any easier for the Jays either as they will be facing a Padre team that owns the best record in the National League heading into Monday’s MLB betting action.  

Toronto Blue Jays +1 ½ (-230) at San Diego Padres -1 ½ (+190)
Monday, June 14 – 10:05 PM ET
Over/Under – 6 ½

The Jays have been slumping, having lost six of its last seven games and seven of its last eight games on the road. Teams have been giving them a taste of their own medicine lately as they have allowed 11 home runs in their last six games. This is coming from a team that leads the majors in long balls with 99, and has only given up 50, including just nine in their previous 19 games.

After years of being mediocre at best, Padres fans finally have a team they can get excited about.  Not only that, but they have tied two Padre teams of the past for the best start in franchise history. That is something to take note of because both of those past teams, the 1984 edition and the 1998 squads, carried that momentum all the way to the National League pennant.

They will look to bounce back from a loss on Sunday, and will send opening day starter Jon Garland to the hill for the series opener. He is looking to get back on the right track as he has lost two straight starts, but has been lights out at Petco Park this year, posting 3-0 record and a 1.15 ERA in San Diego.

Toronto will send their opening day starter, Shaun Marcum, to the hill who has also lost two straight starts. He too had been throwing the ball well before this recent skid as he had won four straight prior this mini-slump.

He’ll be looking for some offensive support tonight as they didn’t mange much against Colorado. One of the big bats in the line-up, Jose Bautista, finally got himself out of a hitless slump on Sunday that saw him go 0-for-24.  

He can be forgiven for that as he came out of the gate on fire, already setting a career high in home runs this year with 18. Those 18 bombs puts Bautista in a tie for the league lead, and he also ranks in the top 10 in RBIs  with 45, extra-base hits with 33 and walks with 40.

The offensive spark for the Padres has come from a familiar name, Tony Gwynn Jr., who is batting .389 over his last 13 games. The son of the hall-of-famer hit an inside-the-park home run on Sunday, something his father wasn’t known for doing, although he did manage two inside-the-park home runs in his career.  

Gwynn Jr. doesn’t have the same sweet swing that saw his old man rack up over 3,000 hits, but he does have an eight-game hitting streak of his own, which ties him for the longest by a Padre this season.  

The Jays can thank the schedulers for this road trip later, but for now they just need to focus on getting wins. Unfortunately, the Padres have the edge in this one. They have won eight of Garland’s last 11 starts, and when you consider how well he’s thrown the ball at home, they are an easy pick tonight.

MLB Lock Alert Pick is the Padres at -110.