The Toronto Blue Jays annihilated the Texas Rangers 12-4 last night to pick up their seventh win in eight games. They're now two games ahead of the New York Yankees for the AL East division title but must be well aware that there's a lot of work still ahead of them if they want to make it to the post-season. I like them to complete the sweep of a three-game set at Arlington Thursday afternoon.

Here are my keys to the game:

1. Pitching - The Rangers hand the ball to Yovani Gallardo (10-9, 3.25) who's allowed just three runs over his last two starts, but it could have been so much worse with a total of 19 hits yielded over 11 1/3 innings of work. He held the Jays scoreless over 8 1/3 innings of three-hit ball on June 27 but Toronto's bats have been extremely hot of late. The Jays will counter with Marco Estrada (11-7, 3.27 ERA) who's 4-1 with a 2.37 ERA in his last five starts. He's limited opponents to a .155 batting average over those games and he won his lone career start versus Texas, yielding one run on four hits in six innings back in 2013.

2. Road Warriors - The Blue Jays have won five straight on the road and they've won six of their last eight away from home with Estrada on the mound. They've won eight of the last nine meetings at Arlington.

3. X-Factor - Edwin Encarnacion is riding a league-high hitting streak of 21 games and he has homered in three straight contests. He was 1-for-5 last night, but the lone hit was a grand slam.

Selection: This is a play on the Toronto Blue Jays (8*)