Rubber Match – Texas Rangers vs. Toronto Blue Jays

Game-day: 4/23/2009

First-pitch: 7:05 pm est.

The Toronto Blue Jays will look for their second straight victory over the Texas Rangers on Thursday night. What’s impressive about Toronto is that they haven’t lost a series yet this season. With all of the hype surrounding Boston, New York and Tampa Bay, the three teams in the A.L. East expected to contend for a pennant this season, it’s been the Toronto Blue Jays who have come out swinging in the A.L. East. The MLB power ranked Blue Jays send pitcher Scott Richmond to the mound. The right-hander has thrown for 10.1 inning this season, has a victory, and an ERA of 3.48. His OBP is .311.

The Rangers will try to beat Richmond and the Blue Jays with veteran Kevin Millwood. Millwood has already pitched 24 innings this season. He has a 1 and 1 record but his ERA is fantastic at 1.17. He’s struck out 14 batters and has a very low .217 OBP.

Here is the BetOnline online sportsbook MLB betting line for this game.

Texas Rangers

Kevin Millwood – R -1 ½ +135 -120 O 9 -120

Toronto Blue Jays

Scott Richmond – R +1 ½ -155 Ev U 9 Ev

Here are a few online MLB wagering trends for this game.

The Texas Rangers are 1 and 5 in their last 6 games on the road.

The Texas Rangers are 1 and 4 in Kevin Millwood’s last 5 starts.

The Toronto Blue Jays are 4 and 1 in Scott Richmond’s last 5 starts versus a team with a losing record.

The Toronto Blue Jays are 7 and 3 in their last 10 games at home.

The trends point to a tough outing for Millwood and I tend to agree with them. Millwood is 1 and 3 with a 6.45 ERA versus Toronto in 7 starts.

Richmond has never started against the Rangers. One of he reason’s the Rangers are favored to win this game is because 2B Ian Kinsler is batting .407 for the season. Richmond may not be able to keep Kinsler off the bases but Millwood is probably in for a tougher game than Richomond.

Toronto will lose a series eventually this season, but I don’t believe it will be against Texas. The Blue Jays might be an overrated bunch, they haven’t been tested against Boston, New York or Tampa Bay, but they should be good enough to beat Texas in this game straight-up.

They could get to Millwood early but even if they don’t, the Rangers’ middle relief won’t be able to shut down Toronto.

I’m going to bet Toronto straight-up at the nice odds of even money in the sportsbook.