MLB Baseball Betting: New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays took care of business on Friday as they opened a 3-0 lead on Yankees starting pitcher Bryan Mitchell and then beat up on their bullpen en route to a 9-0 victory. Francisco Liriano turned in one of his best efforts of the season going 6 innings allowing just 3 hits, no earned runs and 6 strikeouts against 2 walks. The bad news is that the Boston Red Sox also won and are in great form winning 9 straight. The Baltimore Orioles are still playing but pending the outcome of that game the AL East standings look like this: Boston continues to the lead the division with a 5.5 game lead over Toronto and a 7.5 game lead over Baltimore. The Yankees are all but out of contention now 10.5 games off the lead. Toronto is still in the top wild card spot leading second wildcard Detroit by 1 game. It gets crowded after that–Baltimore is 2 games behind Toronto, Seattle 3.5 games back and the Yankees 5 games back.

The Yankees have lost 9 of their last 12 but it’s essential that the Jays don’t let them ‘get off the mat’. New York will start veteran lefthander C .C. Sabathia who has been mediocre at best this year. He’s got a 4.19 ERA and a 1.355 WHIP overall, a 3.54 ERA and a 1.309 WHIP on the road and a 4.11 ERA and a 1.435 WHIP in his last three starts. On the year, the Yankees have split his 28 starts, are 8-6 on the road and 2-1 in Sabathia’s last three assignments.

Toronto will go with inconsistent Marcus Stroman. The right hander has a 4.50 ERA and a 1.305 WHIP overall, a 4.90 ERA and a 1.289 WHIP at home with a 3.71 ERA and a 1.471 WHIP in his last three starts. The Jays are 13-17 overall in Stroman’s starts, 8-6 in his starts at the Rogers Centre and 0-3 in his last three starts. The Yankees have made a nice profit against right handers this year (58-48 +6.2 units).

This looks like a spot where Toronto will take their foot off the gas. They’ve lost money against left handers this year (21-20 -6.7 units) and could be in something of a ‘letdown spot’ after their almost effortless domination of the Yankees on Friday which improved their record against New York at home to 6-1 this year.

BET NEW YORK YANKEES +180 OVER TORONTO BLUE JAYS