CHICAGO WHITE SOX (Samardzija) @ BLUE JAYS (Estrada)
Take: CHICAGO WHITE SOX +105
The White Sox have to be kicking themselves after letting one get away on Tuesday night. David Robertson crashed and burned in a disastrous ninth inning as the Jays, who have been horrible in one-run games, rallied to get the 10-9 win.
Jeff Samardzija will look to get the Chisox back in the win column today. Samardzija is off his best start of the season, and he’s a guy who is capable of getting hot, so I’m hoping that most recent outing was a buy sign for the hard throwing righty.
Marco Estrada has been acceptable for Toronto since moving into the Blue Jays rotation, But Estrada is strictly back of the rotation material, and if Samardzija is on his game again today, it figures to be tough for Estrada to keep pace.
Make no mistake, the White Sox are not the easiest team to back these days. Some teams play the power game, others are built to run. The Pale Hose have been neither this season. They’re dead last in home runs among AL teams, and they’re also at the bottom of the league heap in SB’s. Consequently, the Chisox have scored fewer runs than all of their AL brethren, and by a pretty good margin.
Contrast that with the Blue Jays. Toronto has its problems, but firing up the scoreboard sure hasn’t been one of those issues. The Jays are the highest scoring team in the league, and by a bunch at that.
So even with the better pitcher in Samardzija, this is no cinch. But this is still a guy who profiles toward the top of a rotation vs. one who is clearly not of that caliber and off a really strong showing last week, I want to give Samardzija a look today. I’ll side with the White Sox as the Wednesday comp.
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