MLB Baseball Betting: Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays desperately needed a win on Saturday and they got one. J.A. Happ went 6 innings allowing 4 hits and 2 earned runs and Toronto’s offense did just enough to scrap out a 3-2 victory over the AL East leading Boston Red Sox. So here’s where the AL East race stands as of now with all Saturday action involving divisional teams final: the Red Sox lead Toronto by 1 game, the Baltimore Orioles by 2 games and the New York Yankees by 3 games. The upcoming schedule sets up well for Toronto assuming they don’t lose focus against ‘bottom feeders’ as they have several times this year. After this series Toronto will play three games at home against Tampa Bay followed by a four game road series against the LA Angels. Boston has a much tougher road with 3 home games against third place Baltimore followed by four games at Fenway Park against the fourth place Yankees.

Boston will start right hander Clay Buchholz who has been marginal at best this season but has put up good numbers in his most recent action. Overall, Buchholz has a 5.32 ERA and a 1.426 WHIP with a 4.17 ERA and a 1.317 WHIP on the road. Boston has lost 11 of his 17 games this season including 4 of 7 on the road. He’s been excellent in his most recent starts–albeit against some weak hitting teams. In his last three starts 19 innings pitched, 3 earned runs with 18 strikeouts against 2 walks. That’s a L3 ERA of 1.42 with a 1.105 WHIP and the Red Sox went 2-1 in this stretch.

The Jays will go with right hander Aaron Sanchez who has been solid all year. Overall, he’s got a 2.98 ERA and a 1.163 WHIP with a 3.36 ERA and a 1.220 WHIP at home. Toronto has won 16 of his 26 starts and 7 of 11 at the Rogers Centre. In his last three he’s got a 3.71 ERA with a 1.176 WHIP. That’s kind of a misleading line since he allowed 4 ER in 4 innings on 8/20 at Cleveland. In his two starts since then he’s only allowed 3 ER in 13 innings. Both teams hit right handers well but the problem is that the Red Sox are one of the few teams that are more potent than the Jays in this situation. Boston hits .293 and averages 5.6 runs per game against RHP, Toronto puts up 5.0 runs per game and hits .255.

BET BOSTON RED SOX +140 OVER TORONTO BLUE JAYS