Bassitt, Blue Jays, Will Tame Tigers

Tigers vs. Blue Jays, 7:00 ET

I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about yesterday's game, even though I had a play in that one and now have a play in this game. Yesterday, I was wrong. Not just about the result - the Blue Jays won the game, but they didn't win by two or more runs. They couldn't make much progress offensively against Detroit. They tied it in the ninth and then took the game in the 10th. Let's try and get the money back today.

There are all sorts of issues in Detroit. I laid out a bunch of them in yesterday's article. They continue to not be able to hit and I'm not really sure that they have any solution for that. They do get an opportunity to face a pitcher that has struggled to start the season today, so maybe that gives them an opportunity to break out the bats. The issue is that they have a pitcher of their own that is struggling right now. They are using Spencer Turnbull to try and stop this six-game losing streak. Turnbull has already lost two games for the Tigers. He's only completed eight innings this season and has allowed 12 earned runs. If it makes anyone in Detroit feel better, he did allow seven earned in his first start and only five in the second. Perhaps he drops it down to three in this one? Toronto is just 6-for-28 against Turnbull, and most of that came from five hits in 21 at-bats from Whit Merrifield.

The Blue Jays pulled a rabbit out of their hat yesterday. Sometimes that's all you need in baseball though. You just need that one guy that is going to save the day for you or maybe you need to see another pitcher and that's when it clicks. Whatever the case, they made short enough work of it after entering the bottom of the ninth trailing 3-1 they ended the game with a walk-off in the 10th winning 4-3. If they can keep hitting the way they are right now, but add in some of the power to the mix, the rest of the league should watch out. They have 125 hits as a team so far, but only 15 home runs. Average is great, but those home runs would go a long way as well. Especially to support a pitcher like Chris Bassitt. If you just look at his ERA, you'd think he really sucks. His first game, he definitely did. But, he was much more like the guy the Blue Jays thought they were getting in his second start. Against the Angels, he allowed just two earned runs on two hits over six innings.

I'm not expecting the Tigers to score a bunch of runs in this one and I do have confidence in the Blue Jays to put up a ton of runs almost any day of the week. I'll play the Tigers under 3.5 runs in this game. Bassitt isn't as bad of a starter as he showed in the first game and I expect him to be able to hold the Tigers down. I'll take the under 3.5 for them in this one.

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