Blue Jays vs. Pirates prop bets: Bet on Bo Bichette to score another run

The Toronto Blue Jays continue their three-city road trip with tonight’s matchup against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The pregame narrative: Offence has been lacking for the Pirates lately, which has us targeting a pair of their hitters. We also like the value on Bo Bichette to maintain a nice run-scoring trend, and fading Rich Hill’s low strikeouts prop could lead to a nice payday.

Here are our Blue Jays vs. Pirates prop bets for May 5 at PNC Park.

MLB odds as of 10:35 a.m. ET on 05/05/23.

Blue Jays vs. Pirates prop bets

Best Bet: Hayes under 1.5 hits, Suwinski under 1.5 bases (+104)

The Pirates’ four-game losing streak has been defined by a dearth of offence, so we’re fading a couple of their hitters for a plus-money prop wager.

Ke’Bryan Hayes is off to a very disappointing start, with a .225/.282/.350 slash line (73 OPS+) through 31 games. And really, since his 24-game stint as a rookie in 2020, Hayes has been a subpar slugger (85 OPS+ in 263 games).

We’re sure the Pirates still expect great things from their 2015 first-round pick in the long run, but for now we can’t expect him to notch multi-hit games with much regularity. Hayes has gone under 1.5 hits in 23 of 31 games this season.

Then there’s Jack Suwinski, who’s off to a stellar start but has undergone a power outage recently.

Over his past eight games, Suwinski has a .696 OPS and has fallen under 1.5 bases seven times. He’s also been hitless in five of his past six games, but we like the added security of fading multiple bases instead of one hit.

Key stat: Hayes and Suwinski are a combined 0-for-8 with two strikeouts so far against Toronto starter Chris Bassitt.

Quick pick

Bichette over 0.5 runs (-109): Bichette continues to produce from the No. 2 spot in the Blue Jays’ order, and we continue to be enticed by a near-even price point to be on his run prop.

The shortstop has scored in six of his past eight games, totalling eight runs in that span. His .405 on-base percentage in that timeframe certainly doesn’t hurt.

Toronto has averaged a solid 5.1 runs per game over its past 10, and Bichette is right in the middle of that.

Hill under 3.5 strikeouts (+128): This is a really low line for a starting pitcher, and it might look silly to take the under when you consider Hill has blown past this total in three consecutive starts — collecting 19 Ks in that span.

But we think the plus-money swing is worthwhile here, given that Toronto’s current lineup has only struck out 11 times in 79 plate appearances against the veteran lefty. That’s a measly 13.9% K-rate, which is well below the league average (22.9%).

Also, Toronto has the third-lowest K-rate vs. LHPs (16.9%) and totalled just three Ks in Hill’s two starts against the team in 2021.

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