Saturday's matinee between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees should feature fireworks.
The pregame narrative: Toronto extended its AL East lead to four with a convincing win in yesterday's series opener. But New York is favoured today with 2024 AL Rookie of the Year, Luis Gil, pitching. Chris Bassitt, who has struggled against the Yankees and on the road, gets the ball for the Blue Jays.
Check out my Blue Jays best bets vs. the Yankees for Sept. 6, featuring Aaron Judge and Daulton Varsho.
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Blue Jays best bets vs. Yankees
Best bet: Yankees over 4.5 runs (-141)
This isn't a "must-win" game for New York's divisional hopes, but it's pretty close.
The Yankees' offence is capable of putting up huge numbers, and I expect it to rebound after yesterday's embarrassing 7-1 loss at home.
- New York leads MLB in runs per game (5.26).
- Before Friday, the Yankees were 10-1 against this line in their last 11 games. They averaged 7.45 runs per game in those contests.
- Since the all-star break, New York is top eight in wRC+, OPS and SLG and first in ISO.
I don't expect Bassitt to keep this group in check at the hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium.
Toronto's righty is coming off a quality start on the road in Cincinnati (6.0 IP, 2 ER), but his numbers away from Rogers Centre are still concerning. In 13 starts, he has a 5.82 ERA and a .288 opponent batting average.
On top of that, this Yankees lineup has had his number.
Key stat: New York is batting .285 and slugging .517 against Bassitt in 151 combined at-bats.
Jays prop picks
Judge over 1.5 bases (-115): I took this wager yesterday, and it fell flat when Judge went 1-for-3 with a single.
The AL MVP frontrunner is now slashing .245/.417/.469 since Aug. 1. He's still getting on base a ton, but the batting average is way down, and so is his power.
Nonetheless, Judge still leads MLB in all three slash categories, ISO, and total bases per game.
He's going to break out of this rut sooner than later, and Bassitt should be a great slump-buster. The righty doesn't walk a ton of batters — a plus for this prop — and has a 38th percentile xBA.
Judge is 6-for-21 against Bassitt with two home runs.
Varsho over 0.5 RBI (+135): Toronto's offence should get its licks in, too, and Varsho has solid value to record an RBI.
He's slated to hit fifth for the Jays, according to RotoWire, behind George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.
That trio has been on fire in the second half and Varsho has capitalized on that with an RBI in four straight games and seven of his last nine.
He's also slashing an absurd .260/.309/.712 against RHP this year.
Blue Jays best bets made at 8:49 a.m. ET on 09/06/2025.
