After getting a lightning bolt to win a game Wednesday night, the Yankees hope to ride momentum into this four-game series with the Blue Jays in the Bronx that begins Thursday night. Newly acquired Frankie Montas gets the call for New York here against Jose Berrios for Toronto.
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MLB Betting Odds
Thursday’s baseball betting lines opened New York at around -140 over Toronto, with an over/under of 8.5 runs. Both figures were holding steady in the early betting action.
Blue Jays-Yankees MLB Betting Preview
Toronto just dropped two of three games at home to Baltimore, avoiding the sweep by winning Wednesday’s series finale 6-1. Just before that, the Blue Jays lost two of three to Cleveland, and just before that, they got swept two games at the Orioles. Going back a bit further, Toronto is 0-3-2 over its last five series and 4-9 over its last 13 games.
At 62-54 overall, the Blue Jays are tied with Tampa Bay for second place in the AL East, ten games behind the first-place Yankees. Toronto and the Rays are also tied for second place in the AL wild-card race, a game and a half behind first-place Seattle but only a game up on fourth-place Minnesota.
New York, meanwhile, just dropped two of three games at home to Tampa, avoiding the sweep by winning Wednesday’s series finale 8-7 on a Donaldson grand slam in the bottom of the tenth inning. Just before that, the Yankees lost two of three at Boston, and just before that, they lost two of three at the Mariners. Going back a bit further, New York is 0-5 over its last five series and 4-12 over its last 16 games.
At 73-45 overall, the Yankees still lead the AL East by ten games, but they also now trail Houston by 2.5 games in the battle for the best record in the American League.
The Yanks lead the season series with the Jays eight games to four.
Thursday’s Pitching Match-Up
Montas is 10/21 on quality starts this season, 0/2 since coming to New York in that trade with Oakland a couple of weeks ago. Last Saturday, he allowed two runs and five hits through five innings of a 3-2 Yankees win over Boston. But just before that, he gave up six runs in three innings in a 12-9 New York loss at St. Louis.
The A’s, a team that’s 30-plus games under .500 this season, played 5-14 with Montas, but that was as much as six or seven games worse than they should’ve been, based on his performances.
In his most recent start against Toronto, with the A’s back in May of last season, Montas allowed three runs and seven hits through six innings of a 5-4 Oakland victory.
Berrios is 11/23 on quality starts this year but 0 for his last two. Last Friday, he got bombed for eight runs and two home runs through only four innings of an 8-0 Blue Jays loss to Cleveland. And just before that, he gave up five runs and two homers in less than four innings of a 6-5 Jays’ loss to Minnesota.
Toronto is 16-7 with Berrios this season, although that’s two or three games better than they should be.
Over two starts already this season against the Yankees, Berrios allowed eight runs and 11 hits through 10 1/3 innings. The Blue Jays lost both those games, and both games played over their totals.
Splits With the Sticks
Toronto is batting an ML-best .264 against right-handed pitching this season, with a .325 team OBP and a .434 team slugging percentage. Numbers like those lead us to rank this line-up among the top two or three in the Majors in this split. However, the Blue Jays have also been held to three runs or less seven times over their last ten games.
New York is slashing .240/.326/.425 against right-handed pitching. But this line-up is down a couple of regular sticks with Stanton and Carpenter out with injuries. The Yanks have also been held to three runs or less seven times over their last eight games, and that includes three shutouts!
The Bullpens
The New York bullpen owns a 3.00 ERA this season, which ranks No. 2 in the Majors, along with a 1.15 WHIP.
The Toronto pen owns a 3.79 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP.
- Get more details: Toronto at NY Yankees 8/18/22 Betting Stats
MLB Betting Trends
The Blue Jays are 26-29 on the road this season and 52-41 against right-handed starters.
The Yankees are 42-17 at home and 50-33 against right-handed starters.
Totals Report
- The overs are 60-55 in Blue Jays games this season.
- The totals are split 57-57 in Yankees games.
- The overs are 30-27 at Yankee Stadium this season
