New York Yankees vs Toronto Blue Jays Best Bet: Can the Blue Jays Pitching Hold Up?

New York Yankees vs Toronto Blue Jays Best Bet: Can the Blue Jays pitching hold up?

There's a solid slate this evening with nearly every team in action and my focus is on the AL East matchup between the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees. Let's break it down.

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New York Yankees vs Toronto Blue Jays Prediction

Last night the Yankees got shut out in a very pathetic offensive performance. They were only able to manage four hits as Alek Manoah basically shut them down completely but I think they have a much more favorable matchup tonight against the left handed starter in Yusei Kikuchi.

The Blue Jays added Kikuchi who was a part of the Mariners last season to bolster their rotation and add depth to their starting pitching. Kikuchi is a solid pitcher who can eat innings but one thing he really struggled with last season was getting right handed hitters out.

Right handed hitters had a .271/.351/.479 slash line against him and think this is a perfect matchup for the right handed power hitters that the Yankees possess. Torres, LeMahieu, and Kiner-Falefa have all had great success against Kikuchi as they have combined to hit .407 against him.

Judge is also 2-7 off Kikuchi with both hits coming by way of the long ball so I expect Aaron Judge to have a big game tonight as well. Stanton and Donaldson are the other 2 right handed power hitters in the Yankee lineup and while they haven't seen much of Kikuchi, they are fantastic fastball hitters. Kikuchi can run it up there velocity wise but these guys can all turn around fast balls and Kikuchi's off-speed arsenal is much less effective against righties.

On the mound for the Yankees will be Nestor Cortes who was one of their best best pitchers of the season last year. Cortes doesn't blow you away with velocity but he is excellent at throwing off a hitters timing and usually has above average to excellent command of all of his pitches.

Cortes was also much better at pitching in his home stadium as he posted a 2.53 ERA in the Bronx last year. The main concern for me in this game is Cortez navigating against the power hitters of Springer, Guerrero, Bichette, and Hernandez but Cortes actually posted better splits against righties last year compared to lefties which is what we call reverse splits so I still think he will be able to have success against this righty dominant lineup for the Jays. With that being said, I am rolling with Yankees F5 ML at -114 for 1U as I think the Yankees jump out to a hot start in this game behind the Bats of Judge, Stanton, and Donaldson and behind the arm of Cortes.

New York Yankees vs Toronto Blue Jays Pick

• 1u - Yankees F5 ML at -114 (Bet $114 to win $100)