The Toronto Blue Jays played the way they need to this past week — putting up a lot of runs — and that is what will be expected going forward.
It could be seen coming, as the Jays started putting up tons of offense against the St Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Angels the week prior. That momentum carried forward and the Blue Jays went 4-2 over six games last week, boosting their record to 31-22, 7.5 games back of the AL East-leading New York Yankees.
Toronto remains among the favorites to win the World Series this year, ranking fifth on the odds board at BetMGM Sportsbook Ontario at +1000, trailing the Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and New York Mets. They are +275 to win the AL East behind the Yankees, who can currently be bet at -250.
These Ontario sports betting odds have improved over the past week and for good reason. The Jays started the season well, but they were on the right side of a lot of one-run games and the offense wasn’t performing to the level expected. It led to a slump that lasted a couple of weeks, but the offense is now on track and Toronto is showing what it can do offensively.
Updated World Series Odds
Offense Finally Leading the Way
It started a couple of weeks ago with a four-game sweep of the Angels and continued in the Jays’ next series, as they returned home and swept the Chicago White Sox, putting up six, seven and eight runs in three games. Pitching let them down in the next series against Minnesota and they only won one game but still managed to put up 21 runs over three games.
Vladimir Guerrero, the preseason favorite to lead the league in home runs, is now up to 12, still behind Aaron Judge of the Yankees, but definitely on the upswing. George Springer has also reached double digits in homers and Bo Bichette is up to eight, his early season slump well behind him.
When all of the stars are going this offense is near impossible to stop, and even if a couple of players go through cold stretches the rest of the team can carry them.
An unexpected source of offense has come from the catching position. Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen have each provided pop in the lineup, giving the bottom half of the order a real boost. Jansen has even hit in the No. 5 spot on occasion, tapping into some power that not many knew he had. He’s up to seven home runs on the season and Kirk is at five after a recent two-homer game.
Manoah, Berrios Have Good Week
Toronto's pitching wasn’t incredible over the last week, but Alex Manoah was strong once again. He is now 6-1 on the season with a sub 2.00 ERA, one of the best marks in baseball. Jose Berrios also had a strong start this week and the rest of the staff was average, including Kevin Gausman, who bookended the week for the Jays with one great start and one dud.
Most troubling of all is the status of Hyu Jin Ryu, who has battled injuries all year and is now expected to miss multiple weeks. After a slow start he had been pitching well so this setback comes at an unfortunate time for him and the team. Ross Stripling will come out of the bullpen and take his spot in the rotation, a workable but not ideal scenario.
As long as the offense can keep it up, expect the Blue Jays to continue to improve their record and try to track down the Yankees in the AL East. The 7.5-game deficit with this much season left isn’t that much to make up, so bettors will want to looking to at the odds on Ontario sports betting apps and try to profit on some Blue Jays' success.
