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Yankees Good Underdog Bet Against Blue Jays, Kikuchi

· Sep 19 - 4 minutes read

Our MLB betting lines have already counted out the New York Yankees from the playoffs. They now host the Toronto Blue Jays, the team they need to catch up to for a potential Wild Card spot, with six games left between them.
Right now, the Blue Jays are in the second Wild Card spot and third place in the American League East. The Yankees are fourth in the AL East, seven games behind Toronto, needing to make up ground for even a chance at the postseason.

Starting Pitchers

Yusei Kikuchi (9-6, 3.81 ERA) vs Clarke Schmidt (9-8, 4.56)
Yusei Kikuchi will get the start for the Blue Jays, coming off a very troubling outing. The lefty gave up six runs in five innings, allowing two homers. Despite two of his last three starts not going well, our MLB Vegas odds still favor the Blue Jays for this game. In Kikuchi’s first start in September, he allowed six runs, two earned through 4.2 innings, walking four batters.

Yankees Good Underdog Bet Against Blue Jays, Kikuchi

Clarke Schmidt for the Yankees has not been much better. In his last outing, he allowed seven hits, four runs, three earned, and a homer while only striking out three. That is his fourth straight game, allowing three or more runs. With neither starting pitcher having great stuff recently, MLB Sept. 19 predictions could include an over on this game.

Blue Jays Get Much-Needed Sweep

The Blue Jays swept the Boston Red Sox in their last series, something they desperately needed to do after losing all four games to the Texas Rangers in the previous series. On top of that, the Blue Jays did not only lose the series but lost badly, giving up 35 runs while only scoring nine.

That series loss to the Rangers changed the Blue Jays’ playoff MLB lines, and if they hadn’t bounced back to sweep the Red Sox, Toronto could have missed the postseason. However, even in that series, the Blue Jays never fully “bounced back.” They never scored more than four runs in a game while holding the Red Sox to five for the whole series.

Furthermore, the last five series that the Blue Jays have won were against teams that are either in fourth or last place in their respective divisions.

Yankees Delusion

The Yankees’ MLB odds of making the playoffs are almost non-existent right now, but technically, they are still alive in the race. A lot comes down to this first game against the Blue Jays to start closing the gap against their divisional rival.

The Yankees have won 14 of their last 19 games. The hottest team in baseball…
WELCOME BACK TO THE DELUSION!!!

The Yankees have 6 more games against the Blue Jays who are 6 games ahead of them.

Both teams have 7 other games left

Yanks play PIT (1), ARI (3), KCR (3)

Blue…

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) September 17, 2023

It sure helps that Kikuchi, a lefty, will be on the mound. The Yankees have hit lefties well all season, much better than righties. New York’s OPS against lefties is .107 higher than when facing a righty. On top of that, Kikuchi struggles against righties, and the Yankees’ top hitters are all righties. Righty batters have a .106 better OPS than when Kikuchi faces lefties.

This advantage could help the Yankees win this first game against the Blue Jays and keep the team’s delusions going. It might not last the rest of the series, but it should help New York take Game 1 at home.

Blue Jays vs Yankees Best Bets

Given that the Yankees have been able to hit lefty pitchers and Kikuchi struggles against righties, they seem to have the advantage in this game. Those stats can help when placing a bet on MLB games, knowing one lineup should have success against a pitcher.

MLB Best Bet: New York Yankee ML (+101)