Another two series down and another two series wins for the Toronto Blue Jays, who continue to find ways to win ball games.
Toronto lost the opening game of both three-game series they played last week to Boston and Houston before winning the final two games of each series. It was the second time in as many weeks they have outplayed those same opponents.
Coming up next is a series against the AL East-leading Yankees, who have won their last 10 games, including a 3-2 win Monday night against Toronto, and are currently 2.5 games ahead of the Blue Jays in the race for the AL East.
The Yankees are now slightly favored in Ontario sports betting to win the AL East at +100, and Toronto is slightly behind at +140.
They also are close in World Series odds with Toronto at +650 and New York +700 on DraftKings Sportsbook Ontario. The current series will likely result in some odds moving around if one team dominates.
The Yankees were able to bring their entire roster to Toronto. There had been some concern that Yankees were not fully vaccinated and could not travel to Canada, as other teams have faced.
Updated World Series Odds
Jays Keep Winning Series
Perhaps the most impressive stats for the Blue Jays thus far are that they have yet to lose a series, and even more impressively have yet to lose two consecutive games. These are impressive stats to hold over the course of a week, yet alone over the course of an entire month. They have also been a strong team in one-run games, with a 9-3 record in such affairs (including Monday night's loss to the Yankees). Overall Toronto has a record of 15-9
The biggest stories of the week offensively were George Springer and Bo Bichette. Bichette busted out of his slump in a big way with two homers, including a grand slam against Boston last Monday to start the week with a 6-2 win. Springer led the Jays to a 2-1 win over the Astros on Saturday with two solo home runs and also had some excellent defensive plays in the series.
With those two homers Springer is now tied for the team lead with Vladimir Guerrero, who also has six on the year, putting them both in a tie for ninth in the league. Santiago Espinal continued his strong play and is one of six Blue Jays with double digit RBI with 11.
Big Win Over Boston
The signature win of the week had to be the 6-5 extra innings win over Boston on Tuesday. Toronto held a 2-1 lead going into the eighth inning before Boston erupted for four runs. The Blue Jays came back with three runs to tie the game on a home run in the bottom of the ninth from Springer (who else?), and the Jays went on to win in extra innings.
The worst loss came on Friday as Toronto allowed 11 runs on 14 hits in an 11-7 loss.
Pitching remained consistent as Alex Manoah, Kevin Gausman and Jose Berrios delivered quality starts while Ross Stripling did his best in spot work as a starter. Yusei Kikuchi’s struggles continued, something that will need to be corrected if the Jays want to leap past the Yankees. The bullpen had a couple of rough outings, particularly in the 11-7 loss to Houston but were solid otherwise. Jordan Romano had his first blown save of the season but continues to lead the league with 11.
Moving forward, the Jays’ ability to win one-run games is promising but they are certainly hoping that their offense can give them a bit more wiggle room in those tight games. The big outbursts of offense have been nice, but too often the pressure has been on the pitching staff to hold onto small leads.
With Springer and Bichette coming into form the offense should continue to improve but not necessarily early in the week, as the matchup with the Yankees continues before finishing the week with a series against Cleveland.
