Here is something that has never been said before: The Toronto Blue Jays are playing the Washington Nationals in D.C. on Wednesday… and Toronto is the home team! Welcome to a wacky MLB season during a coronavirus pandemic. The Nats are favored on the baseball betting odds.
Nationals vs Blue Jays – MLB Odds & Picks
How to Bet Nationals at Blue Jays MLB Odds & TV Info- When: Wednesday, 6:05 PM ET
- Where: Nationals Park
- Probable pitchers (away/home): Max Scherzer/Nate Pearson
- TV: MLB Extra Innings
- Stream/gameday audio: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/
- Opening MLB Lines: Nationals -173, Blue Jays +169 (total 8.5)
When will the Nationals get back star outfielder Juan Soto? Teammates say Soto is growing “increasingly frustrated” about COVID-19 testing. Soto has supposedly tested negative six times — three from MLB and three from the team — but he has yet to do so on back-to-back tests more than 24 hours apart. That’s the protocol which clears the way for a player to return. He remains sidelined for the time being and has yet to play this season.
The Nats were supposed to play in Miami this weekend, but that has been canceled by MLB after it was reported that the vast majority of Nationals players voted against playing in Miami because of the Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak. There are countless reasons for the Nationals to be concerned, but manager Davey Martinez — who had a heart procedure — said that he was “scared” about the outbreak.
Apparently, the Nats after this series they won’t play again until next week vs. the Mets.
It’s three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer on the mound. Scherzer allowed four runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings in Thursday’s Opening Day loss to the Yankees. Scherzer had plenty of highs and lows in his 2020 debut, walking four to go with the six hits allowed — including a two-run homer Giancarlo Stanton in the first inning — and his final line might have looked even worse had the game not been called for rain in the sixth inning. On the flipside, he fanned 11 Yankees hitters and induced an impressive 22 swinging strikes in his 99 pitches.
Scherzer had his 94th career game of 10 or more strikeouts, moving him past Curt Schilling for the sixth-most 10+ SO games in MLB history. Scherzer is now in the same company as Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Sandy Koufax. Thursday marked his third Opening Day game with 10-plus strikeouts. Only Johnson, Martinez, Félix Hernández and Bob Gibson have reached that mark, and Scherzer became the first to do it three years in a row.
“I just made better pitches,” Scherzer said. “I got hit a little bit there early, but I was able to execute some other patches as well. As much as I can beat myself up over tonight, there’s also some good things that came out of today that I’m happy with. Sometimes you’ve just got to take your lickings to understand you can be better in the long run.”
Why Bet on Toronto?The Canadian government wouldn’t let the Blue Jays play at home this season because of coronavirus restrictions as the US/Canada border. As recently as late last week the Jays didn’t know where they would play their “home” games. They finally decided on Buffalo, their Triple-A affiliate. However, with the late decision that Jays will be the home team for this game and Thursday’s at Washington and bat last. This will be Toronto’s first home game of the year.
Will the Jays have young star shortstop Bo Bichette for this one? He was scratched Monday because of left hamstring tightness. Teoscar Hernandez blasted a pair of solo home runs hitting leadoff in place of Bichette as the Jays beat the Nats 4-1. Catcher Danny Jansen hit his first homer of the year Monday. He wa
It’s highly-touted pitching prospect Nate Pearson on the mound for the Jays. Pearson, 23, started last season in Class A-Advanced, dominated, then made 16 starts in Double-A before finishing the season with three Triple-A starts. Across the three levels, he pitched to a 2.30 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 119 strikeouts against 27 walks in 101 2/3 innings. He was a 2017 first-round pick out of Central Florida Community College. Pearson started the season on the three-man taxi squad. By delaying his call-up, the Jays get an extra year of club control.
Pearson started an earlier exhibition game vs the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park last week as a tune-up for his debut. The big right-hander experienced some first-inning jitters but settled down nicely after allowing four runs in the first. He is the consensus number one prospect in the organization and the seventh-ranked prospect in the game by Baseball America.
Toronto is without closer Ken Giles. He left Sunday’s game with elbow soreness and is on the injured list. Manager Charlie Montoyo said he could see Anthony Bass taking on closing duties until Giles is cleared to return
Game Trends- Nationals are 23-8 in their last 31 Wednesday games.
- Nationals are 5-2 in their last 7 interleague games as a favorite.
- Blue Jays are 12-29 in their last 41 during game 3 of a series.
- Blue Jays are 2-9 in their last 11 interleague home games.
