20th Sept - Blue Jays vs Red Sox

The Blue Jays are close to a fantastic achievement, but Saturday offered a reminder of how far away they still were. While the New York Yankees secured a comfortable win over the New York Mets, Toronto gave up a late lead in the ninth inning to the Boston Red Sox.

At least half an eye will already be on the three-game home series coming up against the Yankees, a team that they have a three and a half game lead over for the AL East division lead.

Toronto’s line-up will surely fancy 35-year old journeyman pitcher Rich Hill, but Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista have all already hit 30+ home runs and 100 RBIs this season.

For the Blue Jays, Mark Buehrle takes the mound on Sunday and he’ll be looking to put in a quality start after failing to get past the sixth inning in each of his last six starts.

The Red Sox are aiming to keep up a strong stretch of late season form. They showed resilience again on Saturday and there are signs of promise in players like Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr, Travis Shaw and Rusney Castillo for next season.

Hill’s start last week against the Tampa Bay Rays was his first in the MLB since 2009. He didn’t get the win, but it was a pretty good outing, he pitched seven innings, had 10 strikeouts and didn’t give up any runs.

Three Reasons for Betting Tips

1. Hill won’t repeat last outing

It’s a completely different lineup (no disrespect intended towards Tampa Bay). They’re hitting well and they’ll look to tee off over the course of nine innings against Hill in an important matchup for the Blue Jays at Rogers centre.

2. Worth risking the -1.5 Run Line

Two runs doesn’t mean a lot in baseball and in a game where we see the Blue Jays racking up a few runs, we think it’s well worth moving the bet over to a two-run win. The returns are much better.

3. Buehrle won’t keep things quiet

We’re expecting both pitchers to have some trouble in this match-up. Buehrle will give up his fair share of runs making the Over 9.5 Runs Game Total another good, strong return backup bet.