Will The Blue Jays Find Ways To Win Without Bo Bichette?
Blue Jays vs Guardians Betting: Cleveland's Pitching Doesn't Look Good In This Series
The Cleveland Guardians are cruising through the season. At 46-26, they’ve become one of the best teams in the MLB. They’ll look to keep it that way with a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays this weekend.
Toronto is already off to a bad start to the weekend, and the games haven’t even started. Ultimately, the Blue Jays still haven’t confirmed a starter for tonight’s matchup against Cleveland. There’s speculation that it’ll be Yariel Rodriguez, who struck out ten batters in four shutout innings last weekend.
Luckily, even without a starter confirmed, there are odds on the board.
The Guardians are -118, with the total at 8. However, the Under is juiced to -127 at this time.
Below, we’ll provide our Blue Jays vs Guardians betting preview for this weekend’s American League series.
Blue Jays vs Guardians 
📊Records: Toronto Blue Jays (35-39), Cleveland Guardians (46-26)
📍Location: Progressive Field, Cleveland, OH
⏰Day/Time:
📺Streaming: Bally Sports Great Lakes, SN1, Sportsnet+
Bo Bichette Landed On IL
The Blue Jays placed Bo Bichette on the 10-day injured list with a sore calf. He’ll likely be back by June 25th, but it’s not guaranteed.
Therefore, the Blue Jays called up No. 2 prospect Orelvis Martinez to take his place.
While Bichette started the season slowly, with only four home runs in 66 games, losing his presence in a lineup that desperately needs consistent offense will hurt.
Kyle Manzardo Is Back With Triple-A
The Guardians have decided to demote Kyle Manzardo back to Triple-A once Jose Ramirez returns from his paternity leave.
Manzardo is a top prospect who was up for 30 games. But he hit just .207 with no home runs in 87 plate appearances.
Before the season began, Manzardo was the No. 45 prospect in the MLB after being acquired from the Rays for Aaron Civale. It hasn’t worked out for him yet, but the Guardians won’t give up on him this quickly.
Eventually, he’ll still be a piece that helps the Cleveland Guardians standings in September.
Blue Jays vs Guardians BettingOdds For Game 1:
ML: Guardians -118, O/U: 8 -114/-127
⚾ Game 1 ⚾
Friday, 7:10 pm ET
Yariel Rodriguez vs. Carlos Carrasco
It sounds like the Blue Jays will roll with Yariel Rodriguez tonight. While the young righty hasn’t thrown in the majors in over a month, he’s still held teams to a .175 ISO and wOBA of .382 against 72 batters this season. These aren’t horrible numbers, but certainly not good.
Ultimately, Rodriguez has shown considerable strikeout potential in the minors. The Blue Jays hope he will bring that with him.
That said, the Guardians have hit a .179 ISO and wOBA of .356 against righties with their projected lineup over the last 30 days. The team has also limited strikeouts to 14.3% against righties in the last 30 days. Therefore, Rodriguez likely won’t rack up the strikeouts against the Guardians, despite what he’s done in the minors.
Carlos Carrasco will get the call for the Guardians. The veteran righty has a 5.80 ERA on the season. He’s also allowed a .212 ISO and wOBA of .366 to his first 260 batters faced this season. Additionally, Carrasco has only struck out 16.9% of batters this season.
He’ll also have a hard time earning strikeouts. In the last month, the Blue Jays’ projected lineup has limited strikeouts to 14.9% against righties. The projected lineup has also hit a .348 wOBA and needs a couple of clutch hits to stick around in this game.
Let’s back the Over in Game 1. Many of the MLB scores yesterday went over as well.
⚾ Game 2 ⚾
Saturday, 4:10 pm ET
Jose Berrios vs. Ben Lively
The Blue Jays will pitch Jose Berrios for Game 2 on Saturday. He’s a righty who has only walked 3.2% of batters in the last 30 days. He’s also held his opponent to a .151 ISO and has been better against lefties over the last month.
That’s big news, with the Guardians likely to have seven lefties in their lineup for this game.
Meanwhile, Ben Lively will start for the Guardians. He’s got a 3.02 ERA and has been one of the surprises for Clevland this season. Lively won’t add a bunch of strikeouts, but he’s held opponents to a .103 ISO and wOBA of .278 with nearly 47% of ground balls in the last month. He’s been really good overall.
Our MLB predictions for this game include the Under to hit in Game 2.
⚾ Game 3 ⚾
Sunday, 1:40 pm ET
Yusei Kikuchi vs. Triston McKenzie
In the finale of this series, the Blue Jays will finally send out a lefty. Yusei Kikuchi will take the mound, but he’s been bad over the last 30 days. Kikuchi has allowed a .284 ISO and wOBA of .408 to his last 104 batters. While he’s minimized walks, he’s not getting high strikeouts against righties and has allowed a high fly ball and line drive rate with a low ground ball rate.
He’ll face Triston McKenzie of the Guardians, who has also been shaky over the last month. McKenzie has allowed a .333 ISO and wOBA of .425 with 12.6% of walks against his previous 111 batters faced. McKenzie has also allowed 45.1% of fly balls, with just 33.8% of ground balls induced over the last 30 days.
We’d trust Toronto in the final game of this Blue Jays vs Guardians betting preview.
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