The set-up: The Kansas City Royals won the first of this three-game series 5-4 over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday. It was a dramatic win, as Whit Merrifield delivered a walk-off, two-run double to cap a four-run ninth inning. The victory gives Kansas City 10 wins in its last 12 and the Royals are now at .500 (36-35) for the first time since they were 7-7 back on April 19. The Blue Jays opened the season 2-9 and have not been able to reach that .500 plateau and last night's crushing loss drops them another game further away from the break-even mark at 35-38. The Blue Jays began their seven-game road trip with wins in two of the first three at Texas but dropped an 11-4 decision on Thursday, failing in yet another opportunity to move to .500 (team is 0-9 in nine such tries in 2017, getting outscored 73-24!).

The pitching matchup: Marco Estrada (4-5 & 4.98 ERA) gets the start for Toronto and will be opposed by KC's best pitcher here in 2017, Jason Vargas (10-3 & 2.27 ERA).
Estrada takes the mound in a four-game funk, having gone win-less in his previous four outings. He lost the first three in that stretch and then escaped this past Monday with a no-decision, despite allowing six runs on seven hits and four walks in just 3 2/3 innings at Texas (Toronto did win the game, 7-6). Estrada's ERA in his recent four-game stretch is a woeful 12.68. Estrada is seeing for the Royals for the first time since the 2015 ALCS, when he went 1-1 in a pair of starts, including a win in Game 5 that kept the series alive for Toronto. Including the postseason, he's 2-2 with a 2.84 ERA against the Royals in four starts. In stark contrast to Estrada, Vargas takes the mound on a five-game winning streak (2.20 ERA). He is tied with Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw for the major-league lead in wins at 10. Vargas missed the 2015 ALCS following elbow surgery and has not faced Toronto since a win on May 30, 2014 but enters this game with a 2-3 (5.36 ERA) record in eight career starts against the Jays (teams are 4-4).

The pick: Vargas is pitching great but there should be some concern regarding his poor career numbers vs. Toronto. As for Estrada, he's clearly "off his game" and with a career ERA of 6.13 in June, the Over is a 10* play.

The set-up: No one, surely not the Cubs themselves, thought repeating would be a walk in the park. However, few if any, believed the Cubs would be so inconsistent as the 2017 season approaches its mid-point. The Cubs and Marlins opened a four-game series in Miami on Thursday with Chicago banging out 16 hits in an 11-1 rout. Then, one night later, the Cubs fell 2-0, marking the sixth time they’ve been shut out this season. That matches their total from all of last season! The teams square off in the third game of the series late this afternoon at Marlins Park with Chicago just a single game over .500 (37-36), while Miami is 33-39. The Marlins have won five straight home series and are 3-2 on their current 10-game homestand.

The pitching matchup: Jon Lester (4-4 & 3.83 ERA) vs will take the mound for Chicago and Justin Nicolino (0-1 & 5.06 ERA) for Miami. Lester had a great second half for Chicago in 2016 but his 2017 season so far has been a disappointment. He did post his second straight quality start Monday against San Diego, allowing two runs on five hits over six innings with seven strikeouts, but he didn’t factor in the decision. His struggles on the road this season are real, as he's 1-3 with a 5.85 ERA and 1.76 WHIP in six road starts (team is 2-4). Lester has just four LT starts against the Marlins, going 0-2 with a 4.91 ERA (teams are 1-3). Nicolino came off the disabled list Monday to make his first start in nearly three weeks and now makes just his fifth start of 2017 in this one. He was not sharp against Washington this past Monday, allowing six runs (three earned) in three innings, including a pair of HRs. Nicolino has three no-decisions and a loss in his four outings of 2017 but while he owns a 5.06 ERA and 1.69 WHIP plus opponents are batting .299 against him, the Marlins have won his three no-decisions.

The pick: Lester has had his issues in 2017 (especially on the road) but he's a "big-time" pitcher and the bottom line with Nicolino is this, his numbers per nine innings this season are poor across the board. He's allowing too many hits (11.3), too many HRs (2.3), too many walks (3.9) and striking out too few batters (5.6). Make the Cubs an 8* play.

The set-up: The Dodgers opened their three-game series with the Rockies last night, winning 6-1. The victory gives LA eight wins in a row, as well as 14 in the team's last 15 games. The Dodgers have surged to the top of the NL West at 49-25 (the team's 30-10 home record is a MLB-best) and LA's run differential of plus-128 is 18 runs better than that of Houston, which owns MLB's best record (50-25). The Rockies have now lost three straight and are 47-29, leaving them in a virtual tie with the D'backs, 2 1/2 games back of the Dodgers.

The pitching matchup: Tyler Chatwood (6-7 & 4.08 ERA) will get the call for Colorado and he draws LA's Clayton Kershaw (10-2 & 2.61 ERA). Chatwood has had his troubles at home in 2017 (6.39 ERA in seven starts) but he has been decidedly better away from Coors Field this season, going 4-3 with a 2.41 ERA in eight road starts. Chatwood is 4-7 with a 3.95 ERA in 12 career starts versus the Dodgers (teams are 4-8). Kershaw was able to get a win this past Monday at home against the New York Mets, despite surrendering six runs and a career-high four HRs over 6 1/3 innings. The three-time Cy Young Award winner has allowed a career-high 17 HRs but he alos owns a 115-17 KW ratio over 103 1/3 frames. Kershaw has gone 20-6 with a 3.13 ERA in 35 career starts against Colorado (Dodgers are 26-9).

The pick: In Kershaw's 35 career starts against the Rockies, he's held them to a 222 opponents BA. He faces a Colorado lineup which was outscored 26-8 in back-to-back losses to Arizona before opening its nine-game road trip with a thud on Friday, scoring a single run on three hits. Throw in Chatwood's 2.41 ERA in eight road starts in 2017 and we have a 10* play on the under.

The set-up: The Edmonton Eskimos and BC Lions meet Saturday in CFL action at the BC Place. The Eskimos went 10-8 last season and the Lions, 12-6. Both teams won their first playoff game but then fell in their second try, Edmonton lost 35-23 at Ottawa in the East Final and BC lost 42-15 at Calgary in the West Final. The teams split two regular season games last year, with each winning at home (Edmonton 27-23 and then BC, 32-25). Mike Reilly returns at QB for the Eskimos, after throwing for 5,554 yards and 28 TDs (completed 70.3 %), easily his best season of his CFL career. The Lions also return their starting QB in Jonathon Jennings, who is is back after throwing for more than 5,200 yards and 27 TDs while completing 67 percent of his passes in his first real season as a starter. Of the two teams, Edmonton returns enough talent to be considered a serious Grey Cup title contender.

The pick: As noted, the home team won both meetings last season and in fact, the home team has won the last six meetings between Edmonton and BC (the road team hasn't won a game since June of 2014 in this series). Edmonton finished last season as the CFL's second-highest scoring team (30.5 PPG) and BC as its third-highest scoring one (30.3). However, it took BC a few games to find its way, as after three 2016 contests, BC final scores had averaged only 36.0 PPG last season. Also note that in Edmonton's first two road games of 2016, those contests averaged a modest 39.5 PPG. By year's end, these should again be high-scoring teams. However, here in Week 1, when these teams have seen their last five meetings decided by seven points or less, the Under is a 10* play.