The MLB post-season is set to begin with the Wild Card section of the playoffs as the Minnesota Twins take on the Toronto Blue Jays in a best of three game series.
Toronto finished in third place behind the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East to earn their spot in the post-season, while the Twins finished first in the American League Central and sixth in the entire American League to earn their spot.
We'll look at the match-up and provide you with our best free MLB betting picks to see if we can earn you some extra cash while you tune into the action.
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Minnesota Twins vs Toronto Blue Jays information
- Game 1: Tuesday, October 3rd 2023
- Game 2: Wednesday, October 4th 2023
- Game 3: Thursday, October 5th 2023 (if necessary)
- Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- First pitch @ 16:38 ET (All games)
- Best of 3 series
Minnesota Twins season so far
Minnesota have had a fantastic season with a full record of 87-75 for the year, with just two months seeing them lose more games than they won.
They opened up the season in March/April with a 17-12 record, which ended with six wins from their final eight games after a run of six defeats in seven games right before that.
Twins then headed in May for their worst month of the season as they went 12-15, failing to win more than two games in a row at any point in the month and losing three in a row on three different occasions.
June was more of the same as they had another 12-15 run with a run of five defeats in a row early on before they started turning things around. July saw them go 13-11 for a more successful spell as they won nine out of 11, before ending the month with six consecutive defeats.
That was followed up in August by going 15-12 including six wins in their opening seven games of the month, before a poor spell of four losses in a row followed before alternating wins and losses for the most part. September and October saw them end the season going 18-10 and clinch the division with a win over the Los Angeles Angels.
Toronto Blue Jays season so far
Toronto had a fun season themselves, pulling together a record of 89-73 for the campaign with just one month seeing them drop more losses than wins over that period.
The Blue Jays opened the season with an 18-10 start, bouncing back from going 1-3 from their first four games to see them go on a run that ended with seven wins in nine games to really get them going.
May was poor however, going 11-17 which included 11 defeats in their final 16 games of the month to really hurt them and their chances of success. June saw them wake up a little though, opening up with seven wins in their first eight games en route to a 16-11 record for the month.
July then went 14-10 with eight wins from nine games early on in the month, before a run of four defeats in five brought them back down to Earth. August was poor though despite the winning record, going 14-13, in a very streaky month with two different runs of 3+ consecutive wins and losses throughout.
They ended the season with a 17-11 run that included a run of seven win from the first nine games, before another run of the same results followed a four-fight losing streak.
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MLB Picks: Twins to edge out victory
The Twins and their home-field advantage isn't something that is likely to be a deciding factor in this series as Toronto went 46-35 on the road this season. They were a better road team than a home team.
Minnesota went 47-34 this season from home so when you compile the home-and-away splits, they are just slightly in Minnesota’s favor. So slight, in fact, that the home-field advantage can’t be considered relevant.
The Twins have had a longer rest period to set up their rotation for the playoffs. But Toronto’s Kevin Gausman has not pitched since September 26th. He should have the goods to get the Blue Jays at least a split through the first two games.
He was very good in the month of September as a whole with a monthlong ERA of 2.43 in September.
The regular season games between these two teams brought a 3-3 record, so the chances of this going the full distance in the series make sense. But Minnesota seem to be the stronger team for the most part and it would be a surprise to see them drop two games at the Target Field in such a short period.
Backing the Twins to win the series is a good bet, but you can get excellent value at +265 for them to win the series 2-1 and that's our best bet for the series.
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