Are we looking at a four game split heading into the April 14th Blue Jays at Yankees betting contest? Toronto has taken two of three so far this week in the Bronx, but it would be easy to see New York getting the win on Thursday night to pull into a tie for 1st place in the AL East.
Toronto picked up a somewhat surprising 6-4 win on Wednesday night as +152 underdogs in a Gerrit Cole start. They were able to get to Cole for 3 ER, and then add another three from the 7th inning on which has to breed some confidence heading into the series finale.
Holy Vlad
There’s one major reason the Blue Jays were able to get the 6-4 win on Wednesday night and that’s a 4-4, 3HR night from Vlad Guerrero, Jr. Two of those came against Cole and it snapped an 0-8 streak the previous two games for Guerrero, Jr. – who had half of Toronto’s 8 hits.
Don’t expect to see Guerrero, Jr. get a ton of pitches to see in the April 14th Blue Jays at Yankees betting matchup, so it’s going to be up to somebody else on the Toronto roster to step up. George Springer has 10 hits in the last 10 games so he’s a likely candidate while Teoscar Hernandez is hitting .316 on the young season. Toronto is still waiting for Matt Chapman (4-21) to come around after arriving from Oakland in the offseason.
Jose Berrios did a decent job of holding the Yankees to 3 ER over 5.0 IP on Wednesday night, especially considering he managed to get just one out in his season debut against Texas. That gives Kevin Gausman high hopes coming into his second start with the Blue Jays, as the former San Francisco Giant allowed 3 ER over 5.0 IP (5.40 ERA) in his first outing of the year.
Severino Tries to Go Deeper
There’s higher ERA’s all around the majors early on in 2022 due largely in part to the shortened Spring Training due to the lockout. Thursday’s New York starter Luis Severino falls into that category after he gave up 2 ER, but over just 3.0 IP in his debut last week, capped at 65 pitches and bring a 6.00 ERA into this contest.
Severino returned late last season to throw in four relief appearances, but this will be just his fifth start since 2018 due to ongoing shoulder issues. He’ll likely be capped at around 65-70 pitches again until that strength gets built up, the Yankees just hope that takes him into at least the 4th.
The Yankees did get HRs from Anthony Rizzo, Aaron Judge, and Gleyber Torres on Wednesday night but all that did was match Guerrero in the other dugout. Rizzo has 3 HR and 7 RBI already but this New York offense is still largely trying to find its groove scoring just 3.5 runs/game.
Free April 14th Blue Jays at Yankees Betting Pick
Could we see a repeat of what Guerrero did on Wednesday across the diamond on Thursday, because Judge owns Gausman to the tune of 8-17 (.471) with 3 HRs in his career. That’s fine, but the bigger issue is Severino possibly being done in the 3rd inning or perhaps sooner. That leaves a lot of bullpen work for New York, but ultimately this one looks on the higher scoring side of things.
Free Pick: Over 8.5
