First pitch: Thursday, 7:05 p.m. ET
Line: Baltimore +175, Toronto -185, Total: 10.0

The Orioles will be going for their fourth win in five games when they face the Blue Jays on Thursday.

Baltimore has been extremely inconsistent lately, but the team has won three of its past four games and can certainly still find a way to make it to the postseason. The Orioles have one of the most dangerous lineups in baseball, but they need their bats to be going at the same time. Toronto has also played some solid baseball lately, winning two of its past three coming into this one. The Jays beat this Orioles team 4-0 on Wednesday night, and they’ll be hoping for yet another good performance on the mound here. The two guys that will be hoping to outduel one another on the mound are RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (2-3, 7.26 ERA, 54 K) for the Orioles and LHP J.A. Happ (2-4, 3.83 ERA, 49 K) for the Jays. One trend that favors the Orioles in this game is the fact that Toronto is 7-13 against the money line versus teams whose hitters draw three or less walks per game on the season. Baltimore is, however, a miserable 1-14 against the money line against AL starting pitchers with a WHIP of 1.200 or better this season.

The Orioles are playing very well at the moment, and they are hoping to keep it up on Thursday. A win would get them back to the .500 mark and it’d also put them a few more games up on the Jays. Baltimore will, however, have Ubaldo Jimenez on the mound here. The reason that didn’t sound too promising is that Jimenez allowed nine earned runs in 2.1 innings of work against the Rays in his most recent start. He is one of the most inconsistent starters in baseball, and the Orioles are not going to win if he doesn’t pitch a solid game here. Being that Jimenez is on the mound, Baltimore’s offense better come ready to score a bunch of runs on Thursday. That means that guys like OF Mark Trumbo (.255 BA, 10 HR, 37 RBI) and 3B Manny Machado (.223 BA, 15 HR, 38 RBI) will need to come through here. Both have had very disappointing seasons, but it wouldn’t be shocking if they got hot in the second half of the year.

As for the Blue Jays, J.A. Happ is going to be on the mound in this game. Happ is coming off of a brilliant start against the Royals on Jun. 23, as the lefty allowed just one earned run in 6.2 innings of work. He struck out five batters in that game and did not issue a single walk. Happ has, however, struggled against the Orioles this season, allowing four earned runs in only 11.1 innings of work. The Jays can really use a longer outing out of him in this one. On offense, the Blue Jays can use some production from both 3B Josh Donaldson (.265 BA, 8 HR, 20 RBI) and OF Jose Bautista (.238 BA, 14 HR, 37 RBI). Both guys are capable of going yard on any given night, and it’d definitely be big if they did it here.