Toronto Blue Jays vs Boston Red Sox Prediction 9-16-23 MLB Picks

The Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays meet Saturday in MLB action from Rogers Centre. This will be the second matchup in a three-game weekend series. In the opener, the Blue Jays secured a shutout victory. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Boston Red Sox 

The Red Sox played a couple doubleheaders versus the Yankees this week, securing a lone 5-0 win on Thursday. The other games were losses 3-2, 4-1 and 8-5. In the Friday matchup versus the Blue Jays, Boston out-hit the Blue Jays 5-4 but couldn’t find the scoreboard in a 3-0 shutout loss. Justin Turner went 2-for-4 as the team’s top hitter. 

As starting pitcher for Saturday’s game, the Red Sox will go with Chris Sale. This year in 17 starts Sale is 6-4 with a 4.88 ERA and 106 Ks in 86.2 innings. Sale is 1-2 with a 5.17 ERA over his last seven starts. 

Boston Red Sox Team Facts

The Red Sox have lost each of their last 10 day games against the Blue Jays following a loss.
The Red Sox have failed to cover the run line in each of their last 10 day games against American League opponents following a road loss.
The Red Sox have trailed after 5 innings in each of their last five road games against AL East opponents that held a winning record.
The 'Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs' market has hit in each of the Red Sox's last three games as road underdogs against AL East opponents.

Toronto Blue Jays 

Over on the Blue Jays’ side, they took on the Rangers this week. Toronto lost in a four-game sweep during that series, dropping games 10-4, 6-3, 10-0 and 9-2 along the way. On Friday versus Boston, the Jays got a three-run homer from Vladimir Guerrero in the third inning for the winning runs. Bo Bichette and Daulton Varsho were on base at the time. 

It’ll be Chris Bassitt in the starter role for the Blue Jays on Saturday. Across 30 starts this year Bassitt is 14-8 with a 3.83 ERA and 161 Ks in 178.2 innings. Bassitt is 4-2 with a 3.33 ERA over his last seven starts, striking out 36 batters in 46.0 innings. 

Toronto Blue Jays Team Facts

The Blue Jays have won each of their last 10 day games against the Red Sox following a win.
The Blue Jays have failed to cover the run line in each of their last six games as favorites against AL East opponents following a win.
The Blue Jays have trailed after 5 innings in three of their last four games as favorites against American League opponents.
The 'Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs' market has hit in each of the Blue Jays' last five games as favorites against AL East opponents.
The Blue Jays have led after 7 innings in each of their last six home day games.

Matchup/League Facts

The Toronto Blue Jays rank 3rd in the league for ERA this season (3.78).
The Toronto Blue Jays rank 3rd in the league for strikeouts this season (1383).
The Boston Red Sox rank 1st in the league for doubles this season (320).
The Boston Red Sox rank 3rd in the league for hits this season (1339).

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’ll take a stab on the Jays in this one. Both starting pitchers need a good bounce-back effort though, so this should be an interesting matchup. Bassitt posted five earned in 5.1 innings versus the Ranges his last time up, but prior to that he had only one earned in 16.0 innings. As for Sale, he gave up six earned in 4.0 innings during his last start, but had three earned in 9.2 frames before that. On Friday Toronto got the big homer from Guererro but only had four hits in an otherwise rough offensive evening. The Jays have just five runs combined in the last three games and really need to get the bats going in game two.