A disappointing and listless Blue Jays showing Friday evening was magnified by a potential injury to their ace pitcher, Alek Manoah. The big righty left the game after struggling with an elbow injury after a comebacker to the mound. Manoah struggled yesterday, en route to a stunning loss to the lowly Tigers. The Jays closed around -400 favorites on Friday night; a poor showing for a team supposedly in a dogfight for an AL Wild-Card spot.
The hometown Jays will look to dust themselves off and find a way to reignite their offense Saturday afternoon, as Ross Stripling takes to the mound. The veteran thrower has really salvaged this Jays’ pitching staff, and has provided consistent innings since moving into the rotation. He mixes pitches quite well, and has a good knack of keeping the opposing hitters off-balance. While he has struggled to go too deep into games, he has provided Toronto with a solid five or six innings in his recent outings, and given his team a chance to win. He enters Saturday with a 5-3 record, and a solid 3.10 ERA. Against the pesky Tigers’ bats, they’ve proven though that there is little room for error.
#BlueJays Ross Stripling since taking Hyun Jin Ryu’s spot in the starting rotation:
8 Starts
4-2 Record
2.13 ERA
0.92 WHIP
.213 OPP AVG
32 K
6 BB#NextLevel pic.twitter.com/kpFOMpwT3l— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) July 21, 2022
Stripling will be countered by a former Blue Jay, and now veteran journeyman who has found a home in Detroit. Drew Hutchison is in the midst of a respectable season with the Tigers, and has been quite good in recent outings. While he hasn’t gotten much run support in the Motor City, Hutchison will no doubt be amped up to pitch in front of the place where he broke into the major leagues. Expect Hutchison’s pitching style to puzzle some of the Jays’ power hitters.
Hot start for Hutchison!!🔥
A 1-2-3 inning for Drew Hutchison, throwing only 8 pitches!! 😃
Another look at his first K of the game!! 👀#LetsGoHens | #DetroitRoots pic.twitter.com/dpdSrPRtMJ
— Toledo Mud Hens (@MudHens) June 30, 2022
PITCHING PROBABLES: Tigers: Drew Hutchison (1-4, 4.84 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 29 strikeouts); Blue Jays: Ross Stripling (5-3, 3.10 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 62 strikeouts)
Though these teams are definitely trending in opposite directions as we close in on Tuesday’s trade deadline, there is still some solid value that we’ve isolated for Saturday’s crucial showdown. Though odds indicate it’s lopsided, the Jays remain a deeply flawed team, despite John Schneider recently taking over in the dugout. For added insight, the latest news, trends, and analysis, continue reading on beneath the posted odds for our breakdown and betting prediction for the third game of this entertaining Tigers/Blue Jays series. Enjoy the game, folks!
Detroit Tigers vs. Toronto Blue Jays Live Odds & Betting History
Betting odds provided by BOVADA
| TEAM DATA | TIGERS | BLUE JAYS |
| Overall Record | 41-60 | 55-45 |
| Over/Under/Push | 38-56-5 | 53-44-2 |
| Home/Away Record | 17-32 | 32-20 |
| Runs Per Game | 3.2 | 4.9 |
| Runs Allowed Per Game | 4.4 | 4.3 |
| Team Batting Average | .233 | .269 |
| Bullpen ERA | 3.09 | 3.99 |
Detroit Tigers vs. Toronto Blue Jays Prediction:
Though the Jays’ are regaining that reputation around baseball that their offense is on fire, much is due to an inflated perception of what they achieved vs. a listless Boston Red Sox defense coming out of the All-Star break. There the BoSox were depleted and the Jays’ pounced on Boston’s misfortunes in the field. Detroit aren’t a great team, but they aren’t making basic fielding errors, and their dominating bullpen has confounded Jays’ bats through the first two games of this series. The Tigers have been getting to Blue Jays’ pitching, and making games much tighter than they should be, given how lopsided the odds are. Yes, Toronto’s offense has been hot, but the Tigers have nullified them so far this season.
The Blue Jays offense has been going crazy since the All-Star break. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/FILdFy2DZn
— theScore (@theScore) July 27, 2022
And while Drew Hutchison might struggle, he’ll know that he is backed by one of baseball’s best relieving corps. Perhaps that’s why rival managers are so keen on plucking some of Detroit’s bullpen for their own playoff push. Michael Fulmer, Gregory Soto, and Joe Jimenez have dominated Toronto this season, and despite pitching last night in relief, should be good to go once again on Saturday afternoon, should Hutchison require assistance.
The Detroit Tigers are really doing a full audition of their potential bullpen trade chips tonight
— Tyson Shushkewich (@Tyson_MLB) July 30, 2022
For Toronto, while Stripling should be counted upon to again provide quality innings for the Jays – it’s beyond that where the issues tend to crop up. Detroit’s elite bullpen has rescued the Tigers countless times in 2022, whereas with Toronto, it has cost them. The Jays’ bullpen arms aren’t keen on shutting doors or getting out of jams, and too often many have struggled with command or hard hit rate. GM Ross Atkins is no doubt focused on securing relievers before the deadline, though for now the Jays will have to make due with mediocrity.
We think Hittin’ Harold is a bit excited. pic.twitter.com/7Ik2H2ioKr
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) July 30, 2022
Tigers vs. Blue Jays Trends To Know:
- Blue Jays are 8-2 in their last 10 overall.
- Blue Jays are 1-7 in their last 8 when their opponent allows 2 runs or less in their previous game.
- Blue Jays are 5-16 in their last 21 games with the total set at 7.0-8.5.
- Blue Jays are 2-6 in their last 8 Saturday games.
- Tigers are 0-5 in their last 5 games following a win.
- Under is 20-7 in the last 27 meetings.
Though the trends seem to indicate that neither team is interested in winning this game, the thinking here is that the stress-free and youthful Tigers are continuing to have fun spoiling Toronto’s playoff party. The Jays have shown to lack the killer instinct of other playoff contenders, and both their bats and bullpen are ineffective far too often. Hutchison combined with the Tigers’ elite-level relief corps should again stifle Toronto’s power hitters, while beyond Stripling the Jays’ bullpen cannot match that inning-for-inning. Again at a lofty underdog price, look for the pesky Tigers to keep Saturday afternoon’s game quite close in Toronto.
