Blue Jays-117
Yankees vs. Blue Jays Expert MLB Analysis and Pick (Archive)
The Yankees will try to get back on track after dropping three straight entering this three-game set with the Blue Jays. Let’s analyze this AL East matchup and keep cashing our MLB picks on Tuesday night!
New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays
Tuesday, June 15, 2021 – 7:07 PM EDT at Sahlen Field
The Yankees season of disappointment continued over the weekend as they dropped a pair in Philadelphia after losing to Minnesota on Thursday. The most recent loss occurred on Sunday when their offense fell completely silent in a 7-0 setback to the Phillies. The Bombers could muster only four hits in the game and all of them came at the top of the order.
The two-game sweep put the Phillies back over .500 while New York fell nine games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays. The Yankees have now lost seven of nine and are just a game over .500. Although the season is still relatively early, the fans in the Bronx are getting restless and the season could hinge on whether the Yankees can find their footing over the next few weeks.
"We’re going to find out what kind of character we’re made of," Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone said. "We’re clearly in the midst of incredibly tough times. We’ve faced it throughout this season. And we’re going to find out what we’re made of and what kind of team we are. We need to step it up, period.
"We’re grinding over this as much as we can in conversations postgame," Boone said. "We’ve addressed some things and changed along the way, and we’re going to keep doing that."
Blue Jays’ Offense Smashes Then Crashes
There was little the Blue Jays’ offense could do wrong on Sunday at Fenway Park. After splitting the first two games of a four-game series with the Red Sox, the Jays came locked and loaded and delivered a whopping eight home runs including a pair of three-run blasts by Teoscar
Hernández. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Marcus Semien, and Rowdy Tellez also went yard in Toronto’s 18-4 annihilation of their AL East rivals from Boston.
The one-two punch of Guerrero Jr. and Hernandez has been a boon for the Jays and it is not lost on manager Charlie Montoyo, “It’s almost like Shohei Ohtani having Mike Trout behind him. You don’t want to walk Ohtani, because then you have Trout. Now, you don’t want to walk Vladdy, because you have Teoscar hot, having a good year. Not just this year, but he’s having success the last 100 games. This isn’t new.”
But what a difference a day makes because the following day, the Sox put the clamps on the Blue Jays’ lineup and came away with a 2-1 win on Sunday, ending the four-game set with a series split. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. tied the game at one apiece in the top of the ninth with his league-leading 22nd home run of the season. But that was short-lived as Boston’s Rafael Devers scored Alex Verdugo with a walk-off single.
Wanna Make a Bet?
The Blue Jays have defeated the Yankees in six of their nine meetings this season and will send Hyun Jin Ryu (5-4, 3.34 ERA, 1.10 WHIP) to the hill who last went six full innings and allowed three runs on five hits in a 5-2 loss to the White Sox in Chicago.
The Yankees will counter with Jordan Montgomery (3-1, 4.00 ERA, 1.13 WHIP) who was last seen a week ago pitching five-plus innings and surrendering three runs on eight hits in an 8-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
The MLB odds at all of the best online sportsbooks are showing Toronto as a slight favorite over New York in this one. The temporary home of the Jays, Sahlen Field, doesn’t give them any notable advantage as they are a middling 13-13 while the Yankees are an equally pedestrian 16-16 on the road.
That being said, I will pin my hopes on the dynamic duo of Guerrero Jr and Hernandez in the heart of the Toronto lineup against the lefty Jordan Montgomery to tag him early and force the Yankees bullpen to rescue him early. If you want a few more reasons to back the Blue in this one then check out the betting trends below.
- Yankees are 1-5 in their last 6 after scoring 2 runs or less in their previous game.
- Yankees are 1-5 in their last 6 games following a loss.
- Yankees are 2-10 in their last 12 games as a road underdog.
- Yankees are 1-5 in their last 6 during Game 1 of a series.
- Yankees are 1-5 in their last 6 games vs. a left-handed starter.
- Blue Jays are 4-1 in their last 5 Tuesday games.
- Blue Jays are 6-2 in their last 8 games following a loss.
MLB Pick: Blue Jays -117 at Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.