Toronto Bluejays vs. New York Yankees Preview and Pick

Toronto Blue Jays (31-28) +115, 8 at New York Yankees (28-29), 7 pm Eastern Tuesday
by Zman of Predictem.com

American League Eastern Division rivals meet again when the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees open a three-game series Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Baseball Bookmakers are listing New York and first-time starting pitcher Joba Chamberlain as -125 home favorites for Tuesday's game, with a total of 8, while Toronto and Roy Halladay are getting +115 as road underdogs.

Toronto has won 14 of its last 20 games, and is 3-3 on a current nine-game road trip, after taking two of three in Oakland and dropping two of three in LA to the Angels. Meanwhile, the Yanks just completed a 3-4 road trip with a 6-5 loss to Minnesota Monday night. So going into this series, the Jays are in third place in the AL East, five games back of the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, while New York is in fourth place, seven games out of first place.

Toronto is 16-17 on the road this year, and 29-30 vs. the run line, while New York is 14-12 at home this season, 22-34 vs. the run line.

In the first meeting between these two teams this season, the Yanks took two of three games from the Jays in New York in early April. And all three of those games stayed under their totals. Last year, NY took the season series from Toronto 10 games to eight, with the totals going 7-11, as the games averaged 9.4 total runs.

Over his last three starts, including a solid outing vs. Oakland last Wednesday, Halladay (6-5, 2.93, .99 WHIP) has allowed six ER and 22 baserunners (hits + walks) in 23 2/3 IP. Toronto is 6-5 in Halladay's start this year, the totals 3-8.

Halladay started three times vs. the Yankees last year, and once already this season, allowing nine ER and 32 BR in 29 2/3 IP. The Jays are 2-2 in those four games, as is the over/unders.

Chamberlain (1-2, 2.28, 1.14 WHIP) will be making his much-anticipated first major league start, although he did start in college and in the minors. And he'll be on a pitch count Tuesday night, which means the New York bullpen will probably take over somewhere around the sixth inning.

On the offensive side of things, Toronto ranks 10th in the majors in team batting this year at .262, 7th in team OBP at .338, 26th in team slugging at .379, and is averaging 4.4 RPG.

In the opposite dug-out, New York ranks 7th in the majors in batting at .267, 11th in OBP at .333, 9th in slugging at .419, and is averaging 4.5 RPG.

The Toronto bullpen ranks 3rd in the majors in ERA at 2.90 and 7th in WHIP at 1.26.

The Yankees pen ranks 13th in the majors with a 3.65 ERA and 10th in WHIP at 1.28.

The totals are 19-37 in Jays games this year, 20-35 in Yankees games, and 10-14 in games played at Yankee Stadium, which are averaging 9.8 total runs per.

Zman's Pick: I'm on the Jays at +115!

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