Morning Coffee: What are the odds Blue Jays avoid a sweep?

The longest postseason losing streak in Major League Baseball history is over.

The Minnesota Twins snapped their 18-game postseason losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of their AL Wild Card Series on Tuesday.

The 18-game losing streak was the longest playoff losing streak in the history of the MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA.

Twins rookie Royce Lewis was the hero, hitting home runs in each of his first two career postseason plate appearances.

On the flip side, the Blue Jays managed just one run as they suffered their sixth straight playoff loss, which is tied for the longest active postseason losing streak in the majors.

Can Toronto bounce back with a win and avoid the series sweep in Minnesota this afternoon?

The Blue Jays are a small underdog to win Game 2 at FanDuel.

This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023.

What are the odds Blue Jays avoid a sweep?

If you’re a Blue Jays fan, there’s plenty of cause for concern heading into Game 2 against the Twins.

Minnesota will start Sonny Gray, who registered a 2.79 ERA during the regular season.

Toronto’s offence couldn’t get much going in the series opener and will in for another tough test in the rematch.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays will counter with former Twins’ pitcher Jose Berrios, who is 0-1 with a 3.75 ERA in three career postseason starts.

Taking a look at the updated Game 2 odds at FanDuel, Toronto is a bigger underdog than it was for Game 1.

The Blue Jays closed at +108 to win Game 1. They’re a +124 ML underdog for Game 2.

Under the current format in 2020 and 2022, the winner of Game 1 in the Wild Card Round went on to win the series 83 per cent of the time.

Minnesota went from -134 to -420 to advance at FanDuel following the Game 1 win.

The updated odds give the Twins an 80.8 per cent implied probability to advance. Toronto went from +110 to +310 to advance.

No one is writing off the Blue Jays after one loss. However, after losing the series opener on the road, Toronto is certainly going to go off as an underdog to win Game 2 and a long shot to advance at FanDuel.

An NFL Early Lean for Week 5

On Monday morning, I recommended a play on the San Francisco 49ers to beat the Dallas Cowboys in Week 5 at -162 odds at FanDuel as my Early Lean.

I’m glad I got that wager in early, as San Francisco is up to -188 on the money line at FanDuel this morning.

Meanwhile, our NFL analyst Davis Sanchez revealed his Early Lean for Week 5 in the NFL on Tuesday.

Chezzy likes the Buffalo Bills to cover as a 5.5-point favourite against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.

The Bills have won and covered in three straight, winning each of those three games by 28+ points.

Chezzy has been on fire with his NFL picks again this season, so I’ll be tailing him again with a play on Buffalo to cover.

We’re just over 24 hours away from kicking off Week 5 with Thursday Night Football.

I’ll be back Thursday morning with a FanDuel Best Bet for that game.