The Toronto Blue Jays will send their ace pitcher, right hander A.J. Burnett (4-4, 4.71 ERA), and hope to avoid a series sweep at home to the Los Angeles Angels Thursday night (7:05 p.m. ET) . Getting a win might prove to be difficult as the Blue Jays must face Angels ace right hand pitcher Ervin Santana (6-1, 2.97 ERA), who will be looking for his seventh win this season.
Oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com currently have the Blue Jays listed as 133-moneyline favorites versus the Angels, while the game's total is sitting at 8.
Santana is moving up a day to switch places with Joe Saunders, who is feeling the effects of a cold. After opening the season with seven consecutive superb outings, giving up no more than three runs in any of them, Santana had his second straight so-so performance on a stifling on Saturday against the Dodgers. After retiring the first five hitters, striking out two, he walked a man and yielded a disputed home run to Blake DeWitt. A walk and hit batsman set up two more runs in the third, and Santana gritted it out through six innings, yielding four runs on five hits while striking out five. In four career starts against Toronto, Santana is 1-2 with a 6.35 ERA.
Burnett had a strong outing in his last start, going 6 1/3 innings in a 6-3 victory over the Phillies on Saturday. Burnett struck out eight and gave up just two runs in facing moderate danger. He kept the Phillies off balance with a two-seam fastball. He gave up a total of four hits. He also saw his ERA sink from 4.94 to 4.71. Burnett is 0-1 when starting against the Angels with an ERA of 3.86 and a WHIP of 1.286.His team's record is 0-1 (-1.1 units) in these starts. The UNDER is 1-0 (+1.0 units).
Vladimir Guerrero belted two home runs to lead the Angels to a 4-3 win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday, as +125 underdogs. The seven runs went UNDER the night's posted over/under (8.5).
Guerrero drove in all four runs for the Angels. Jon Garland tossed six innings for the win, and Francisco Rodriguez earned his 19th save.
Gregg Zaun had two hits in three trips to the plate with one RBI for the Blue Jays, who were favored at -135 in the contest. Shaun Marcum gave up four runs off four hits over 6 2-3 innings in the loss.
Point-Spreads.com MLB Picks: Angels ML +123
