Hammering home runs at a ridiculous rate is no guarantee of success in online betting if you don’t have the pitching to back it up. You need only look at the success of the Kansas City Royals last season to see that power can be overrated, which is exactly what the Toronto Blue Jays are finding out the hard way this season. The Jays will play the second of a 4-game series versus the Cleveland Indians on Friday as they attempt to get their bullpen issue sorted out.

Toronto Blue Jays vs Cleveland Indians MLB Betting Analysis

Date: Friday, May 01, 2015 Time: 7:10PM Venue: Progressive Field Opening Line: Cleveland -119

Struggling Blue Jays come to Cleveland to take on Tribe http://t.co/vBnZvgfLk0 pic.twitter.com/3INwNIhR4a
— SportsTime Ohio (@SportsTimeOhio) April 30, 2015

The Blue Jays (10-12) are an exciting team to watch, especially if you are a fan of high-scoring games. They currently lead the league in runs scored during the month of April, with 118 runs to their name. That they are bottom of the AL East and only have a run differential of +3 tells you that all is not so good in the Great White North. At the heart of the problem for the Jays is the performance of the bullpen. Overall, they are probably quite pleased at how well their starting rotation has performed, but as soon as that call to the pen goes in, you can almost hear the groans from the Blue Jays faithful. Veteran lefty Mark Buehrle (3-1, 4.94 ERA) will get the call on Friday, and will be looking to bounce back from his last start, where the Rays lit him up for 13 hits.The groans coming out of Cleveland are a little louder than those in Toronto, as the Indians (7-13) are off to a pretty sluggish start to the season, and already find themselves 7 games back in the AL Central. You hate to write a team off in April, but given the starts that the Tigers and the Royals have made to the season, it’s tough to see the Indians getting back into the race. Cleveland has been unable to offer anything on offense this season, and their lone bright spot on the team has been pitcher Danny Salazar, who is beginning to show some real promise. It will be Carlos Carrasco (2-2, 4.60 ERA) who gets the start on Friday, though, and he will need to do better than his last outing, where he only lasted 4.1 innings before getting the hook.

Key Online Betting Trends

Toronto is 1-5 SU in its last 6 games Toronto is 1-5 SU in its last 6 games on the road Toronto is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games when playing Cleveland Toronto is 8-4 SU in its last 12 games when playing on the road against Cleveland The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Toronto’s last 7 games when playing on the road against Cleveland Cleveland is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games The total has gone OVER in 5 of Cleveland’s last 6 games Cleveland is 2-6 SU in its last 8 games at home The total has gone OVER in 7 of Cleveland’s last 9 games at home Cleveland is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games when playing Toronto

Consider This Before Placing Your Bets

If the Blue Jays can get on top of Carrasco early, they can build up a lead that will take away their need for the bullpen. I think Buehrle will bounce back here and help the Jays get the W.Sources ESPN.com (http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/4454/mark-buehrle) MLB.com (http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=471911)