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A hot Toronto team heads West for an interesting four-game series with the A's in Oakland beginning Monday night. The Jays just swept a series from Atlanta over the weekend, while the A's just about got swept by Baltimore. Righty Frankie Montas goes for Oakland tonight against lefty Steven Matz for Toronto. How do we break this game down for <a class="advblue" href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/free-mlb-picks&quot; title="Daily Baseball Picks">today's free MLB pick</a>?
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MLB Betting Odds<br />
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Monday's <a class="advblue" href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/odds&quot; title="Live MLB Betting Odds">MLB betting odds</a> opened this game at basically a pick 'em, with an over/under of 8.5 runs. Early betting action then bumped Oakland to -120.
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The A's could also be found at the tasty price of +170, giving the run and a half on the MLB run line.
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Blue Jays-A's MLB Betting Preview<br />
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Toronto just swept three games from Atlanta down in Florida over the weekend by scores of 13-5, 6-5, and 7-2. The Jays won as -125 favorites Friday, then cashed in as +120 and +115 dogs Saturday and Sunday. Just before that, Toronto split two games with Washington, and just before that, it took two of three from Tampa Bay. So the Jays are 7-2 over their last nine games. At 14-12 overall, Toronto sits in second place in the AL East, a game and a half back of first-place Boston. Oakland, meanwhile, just dropped two of three games at home to Baltimore over the weekend, avoiding a sweep by rallying late to win Sunday's series finale 7-5. The A's lost as -130 favorites Friday, then at -175 Saturday, before avoiding disaster at -195 Sunday. Just before that, Oakland split four games with the Rays. So since winning 13 games in a row, the A's are just 3-5 over their last eight. But at 17-12 overall, Oakland leads the AL West by one game over second-place Seattle. These teams last met back in 2019, when the Jays swept six games from the A's.
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Monday's Pitching Match-Up<br />
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By our strict accounting, <a class="advblue" href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/pitcherlog/70849&quot; title="Frankie Montas Pitching Logs">Montas is 2/5 on quality starts</a> this season and 0 for his last two. Last Tuesday, he gave up three runs on six hits and two walks through six innings of a 4-3 Oakland loss to Tampa Bay. And in our books, a 4.50 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP doesn't qualify as a "quality" start. But at least it was a considerable improvement over his previous outing in which Minnesota clipped him for six runs and three home runs through four innings, although the A's rallied to win that game 13-12. On the season, Oakland is 3-2 with Montas, which seems about right. This will be Montas' first action against Toronto since a relief stint back in 2017, and that's already a long time ago. New Jay <a href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/pitcherlog/69870&quot; class="advblue" title="Steven Matz Pitching Logs">Matz is 3/5 on quality starts</a> this season but also 0 for his last two. Last Wednesday, he gave up six runs and eight hits through 3 2/3 innings of an 8-2 Toronto loss to Washington. Just before that, he gave up three runs through five frames in a 5-3 Blue Jays victory over Tampa. With three great starts to begin this season, Toronto is 4-1 with Matz. This will be Matz's first action against Oakland since back in 2017 when he was with the Mets.
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Splits With the Sticks<br />
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Toronto is batting .229 this season against right-handed pitching, with a .321 team OBP and a .371 team slugging percentage. This lineup has been operating without George Springer and Teoscar Hernandez for a while, but both are now in action.
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Oakland is batting .233/.315/.430 against left-handed pitching this season. The A's have also been held to three runs or less six times over their last nine games.
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<p><section></p>
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<span style="font-size:16px;"><b><span style="color:#008000;">Get more details:</span></b> <a class="advblue" href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/matchup/1355471">TOR/OAK 5/3/21 Matchup Stats</a></span>
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The Bullpens<br />
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The Blue Jays bullpen owns a 2.61 ERA this season, fourth-best in Baseball, along with a 1.16 WHIP. The Oakland pen owns a 3.55 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP.
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MLB Betting Trends<br />
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Toronto is 8-6 as an underdog this season.
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Totals Report<br />
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Unders are 16-9 in Jays' games this season.
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Totals are split 14-14 in A's games this season.
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Overs are 10-7 in games played at the Oakland Coliseum this season.
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