Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook.<\/a><\/p>\nToronto (-110; bet $110 to win $100)<\/p>\n
Toronto has a clear advantage in Game 1 because it can set its rotation whichever way it wants. <\/p>\n
The Blue Jays will likely throw Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage in Games 1 and 2 at home, just like they did in the ALDS against the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n
Seattle’s pitching plan is up in the air. George Kirby started ALDS Game 5 on Friday. Luis Castillo and Logan Gilbert each pitched in relief. Gilbert threw two innings, while Castillo worked 1.1 innings and got the win.<\/p>\n
Bryce Miller is the only completely fresh starter the Mariners have. He started Game 4 against Detroit on Wednesday. The Mariners likely won’t make that decision until they get to Toronto.<\/p>\n
The Game 1 matchup as a whole favors Toronto because Seattle played 15 innings in a series clincher and now has to get on a cross-continent flight to Ontario. <\/p>\n
Yesavage, who was just called up in September, has never faced Seattle. That will play into Toronto’s favor at the start of Game 2. <\/p>\n
The Blue Jays won four of the six regular-season contests between the two sides, but those games took place in April and May, so it’s not a good barometer for where both teams are at the moment.<\/p>\n
At minimum, the Blue Jays need to take Game 1 before the pitching advantage swings back into Seattle’s favor. The Mariners could easily throw Gilbert and Kirby twice each later in the series. <\/p>\n
Toronto presents a different matchup for those pitchers compared to Detroit, though, as the Blue Jays had the second-lowest strikeout rate in the majors. The Tigers had the fifth-highest punchout rate. <\/p>\n
Toronto’s ability to avoid the strikeouts and put the ball in play could end up as its top difference-maker in what should be a close series.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Toronto over Seattle in 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Seattle Mariners returned to the ALCS for the first time since 2001 with a 15-inning win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-204680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}