Cheap price for possibly the best starter in baseball and we get him pitching at home. Halladay is off a bad start in which he allowed 4 earned runs in 5 innings to the Red Sox. But the big man has a habit of bouncing back after a poor performance. This year he has allowed four earned runs or more just six times. In the games following those performances he permitted just 9 earned runs in 38 innings of work covering five starts. The Blue Jays won 4 of those 5 games. Halladay has produced seven straight quality starts against Tampa Bay and he owns a 2.89 ERA overall pitching in Toronto this season. The Rays counter with Jeff Niemann who has been a pleasant surprise this season. If you remember back to the beginning of the year he was considered the odd man out with David Price on the rise. Niemann has just 20% of his road starts being quality ones. Most of his damage has been done at home. In his last three starts away from home he permitted 13 earned runs in just 19.1 innings of work. The last time he faced the Jays Toronto pounded out 5 earned runs in 6.2 innings of work. The host in this series has won 7 of the last 10 meetings and we expect another home grown victory.
PLAY TORONTO
Bryan Leonard 8/24
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