The Tampa Bay Rays conclude their three-game home set against the Colorado Rockies Thursday eveninginside Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. They toss out the first pitch with an early start at 1:10pm. Tampa won in 10 innings, 6-5, on Wednesday night. 

 

Tampa Bay Rays Betting Preview

 

The Rays (77-51) raced off to that historic pace and start and had no idea that the Baltimore Orioles would show up and play inspired baseball this season. The Orioles have the slimmest of leads over the Rays as both teams battle for the top spot in the AL East. 

 

Baltimore has shown they have a ton of staying power, while the Rays have gone on a recent run to make things interesting. On offense, they are led by third baseman Isaac Perdes who has cracked a team-high 24 home runs while driving in 78 runs and he is hitting .257 on the season.

 

Tampa is a solid team and we like them in this spot because of their overall starting rotation. They have yet to name a starter in this one, but they have a very solid bullpen if they need to shorten up the game. 

They will send out Shawn Armstrong who will be in search of his first win of the season as he has appeared in four games with the Rays this season. He should have a fresh arm and legs. We think the Rays offense will be enough to back him in this one today. 

They are too good of a team to not beat up on bad teams like the Rockies.

 

Colorado Rockies Betting Preview

 

The Rockies (48-78)  are a bad baseball team and have been buried in last place in the NL West and they are just playing out the string right now. They can not wait till get the season off as they are approaching a 90 plus loss campaign. They have not had many reasons to smile this season and have a couple of young players they can build upon. 

 

On offense, they are led by third baseman Ryan McMahon who leads all players on the team with 21 home runs to go along with 65 runs batted in and he is hitting .252 on the season. Colorado has had issues with pitching this season and they have not really had any hurler stand out as a well defined ace on the staff. 

 

They will send out 26-year-old Peter Lambert who owns a 3-4 record to go along with his ERA of 5.02. He has fanned 56 batters in just over 68 innings of work for Colorado, which has a team ERA of 5.57. They have allowed a total of 178 home runs on the season.

 

Game Odds, Series Trends and Free Pick  

 

The Rays are 4-1 in their last five games and 4-1 in their last five games against the spread. The Rays are also 33-31 in their road games against the spread and the totals have gone over in four of their last five games. Colorado is 2-3 in their last five games and 2-3 in their last five games against the number. They are 32-32 in their road games against the spread and the totals have gone over in five of their last five games. 



Persian Pick: Tamp Bay Rays