AL East rivals will square off Thursday as the New York Yankees (25-20) take on the Toronto Blue Jays (25-18) in the finale of a four-game set. The Blue Jays will host this one at the Rogers Centre, with first pitch scheduled for 7:07 pm ET.
After the Yankees took the first two games, the Blue Jays bounced back with a 3-0 victory on Wednesday.
The Blue Jays are the favorite playing at home in this one. They are -130 to win, while the Yankees’ moneyline sits at +110. The runline features New York +1.5 (-178), and the over/under for total runs is nine.
Yankees Look For Series Win Thursday
After outscoring the Blue Jays 13-7 in their first two games, the Yankees’ bats went cold in their loss on Wednesday. Trying to bounce back, New York will look to pick up the series win on the road, where they are 9-10 this season.
Taking the ball for manager Aaron Boone’s club will be lefty Nestor Cortes. In eight games, Cortes is 3-2 with a 5.53 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, and he has struck out 42 in 42.1 innings of work. He has been a bit shaky as of late as the southpaw has given up a combined 15 runs over his last 14 innings.
Offensively, the Yankees rank 13th in the majors in scoring, averaging 4.66 runs per game. Leading the offense is superstar Aaron Judge. In 125 at bats, he is hitting .272/.377/.584 with a team-leading 11 home runs, 26 runs batted in, and 27 runs scored.
Keep an eye on Anthony Rizzo in this one. Against the Blue Jays’ Jose Berrios, the first baseman is hitting .409 with two home runs and four runs batted in over 22 at bats.
Blue Jays Try To Stay Dominant At Home
At 25-18, the Toronto Blue Jays have had a strong start to the season. Despite their great record, they have struggled on the road (12-13) compared to at home (13-5). They will hope to use their home field advantage to earn the series split in this one.
28-year-old righty Jose Berrios will toe the rubber for the Blue Jays. In eight games, he is 3-3 with a 4.70 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, and he has 44 strikeouts in 46 innings. In his last start, Berrios took a no-decision against the Braves after allowing two earned runs over 5.2 innings.
Toronto’s offense has been pretty similar to the Yankees thus far. In fact, they sit just one spot ahead of them in the scoring ranks, averaging 4.74 runs per game.
The offensive leaders for the Blue Jays to this point have been Bo Bichette (.319 avg, 8 HR, 28 RBI) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr (.312 avg, 7 HR, 26 RBI).
Against Nestor Cortes, Matt Chapman has had some success. In 11 at bats, he is hitting .273 with two solo home runs.
Take The Yankees On The Runline
The Yankees come into this one having gone 7-3 in their last 10 games and 4-1 in their last five games at the Rogers Centre. The OVER has hit in five of the last six Yankees’ road games.
As for Toronto, they are 4-2 in their last six games overall and 9-3 in their last 12 home games. In 11 of their last 16 games, the OVER has also hit.
Neither Cortes nor Jose Berrios have been particularly dominant to this far, indicating that Thursday’s game could be a bit of a slugfest. For that reason, the OVER is an interesting bet, but the safest bet could be taking the Yankees on the runline at +1.5 (-178).
