MLB Baseball Betting: Toronto Blue Jays at New York Yankees

We’ve said it before and its definitely the case now: the Toronto Blue Jays are a ridiculously frustrating team. Most problematic has been their inability to play well when they get in a position to claim a strong hold on first place in the AL East. They lost two of three to the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend and will need to win to avoid a sweep by the New York Yankees here. In the process, they’ve allowed the Boston Red Sox to gain a first place tie and now also have the Baltimore Orioles and the Yankees to deal with. The top four teams in the division are now within five games of each other which should make for a very entertaining run down the stretch.

Of course, Jays’ fans would like it to be a bit less entertaining. The tendency of the team to ‘let down’ when they finally reach the top spot in the division is maddening and inexplicable. Maybe it’s the belief that they’ve got some ‘security’ for making the playoffs via the wild card. They do hold down the top spot in the AL Wildcard race currently but it’s even more crowded and contentious than the divisional race. The Jays are one of 7 teams within 6 games of each other vying for two wild card spots. Throw in the ‘shootout’ nature of the wild card ‘playoffs’ and that’s not much security at all.

The pitching matchup isn’t one that will instill Jays’ fans with a lot of confidence. Marcus Stroman will take the ball for Toronto and he’s been mediocre at best this year. Toronto is 13-14 in his 27 starts including 5-9 on the road. Stroman is consistent at least with a ERA in the low to mid 4’s in every situation. The Yankees will send one of their best young pitching prospects as Bryan Mitchell will get promoted from Triple A to make his first big league start of the year.

This looks like a spot to go with the old ‘team avoiding the sweep’ angle and back Toronto. Unfortunately, to paraphrase Bob Barker the ‘price isn’t right’. At this ridiculous price we’ll back the home team.

BET NEW YORK YANKEES +160 OVER TORONTO BLUE JAYS