At first blush, it does not appear that the Toronto Blue Jays have been playing fantastic baseball. After all, the team is just 17-21 as mid-May arrives and that isn’t exactly inspiring given the way Toronto has operated in recent years. However, the Blue Jays have won five straight games (and seven of eight) as the Atlanta Braves arrive to begin a two-city, four-game series and that paints an interesting picture for the visitors.
Atlanta is, of course, playing slightly better as well after winning two of three against the Marlins in Miami. Still, this is a spot in which the Braves are certainly underdogs to claim an extended series victory and it would be nice to get off to a strong start behind Bartolo Colon on Monday evening.
Colon enters with an unsightly 7.22 ERA on the young season and, frankly, he has been quite bad. The veteran right-hander allowed eight earned runs in 5.2 innings against the Astros in his last outing and, before that, Colon struggled against both the Mets and Brewers. There is nothing resembling a “breather” for him in this spot, either, but perhaps Colon is due for a bounce-back performance.
In opposition, the Blue Jays will send 29-year-old right-hander Mike Bolsinger to the hill. He has appeared only once this season, allowing two runs in 5.2 innings against Cleveland a week ago, but the Braves should have plenty of data on Bolsinger from previous stops with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.
At the time of this post, the Braves are approximately +120 underdogs in this match-up, indicating that Las Vegas does not believe strongly in Atlanta here. Still, one strong performance from Colon could work wonders and, if it doesn’t arrive soon, whispers will turn into screams with regard to his place in the rotation.
Stay tuned throughout the day for all the latest and, in short, this one feels big for the road game.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Monday, May 15, 2017, 7:07 pm ET
Location: Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario
TV: Fox Sports Southeast, MLB Network, MLB.tv (streaming)
Radio: 680 AM, 93.7 FM (Flagship in Atlanta), WYAY 106.7, Braves Radio Network