Can Bronx Bombers Beat Blue Jays?
The Yankees finally broke their slump in a really dramatic way last night. After a walk-off grand slam, the New York fans are probably breathing a bit of a sigh of relief. Can it be sustained or will it be just one dramatic win?
Starting with the Blue Jays, they have Jose Berrios playing the role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In July, he was great for them. He went 36 innings, allowed just 12 earned runs (five home runs was still too many for me), and it resulted in a 3.00 ERA. The Blue Jays won all six games. This probably seems like an obvious statement, but if Berrios gets a quality start, the Blue Jays tend to win. However, when he doesn't, he gives up a lot of runs and the Blue Jays lose. He has seven starts this year where he has allowed more than five earned runs. That's roughly 30% of his starts this year. He's faced the Yankees twice, and the Blue Jays are 1-1 in the games. He's only faced them on the road this season and he's allowed eight earned runs in 10.1 innings.
Midseason acquisition, Frankie Montas, goes for the Yankees tonight. As I've mentioned, the Yankees have struggled the last couple of weeks. After a bad start to his Yankee career, Montas rebounded fairly well with a five-inning, two-earned run start against the Red Sox. I like the way that Montas goes about pitching, and this will be his first home start for the Yankees. In Oakland, he was significantly better at home than he was on the road. He only has two appearances at Yankee Stadium and it accounted for seven total innings and two earned runs. He's also been good against the AL East, not that that means he will be good against Toronto, but sometimes, people are just better against certain divisions for whatever reason.
I'm not thinking the Yankees have found a solution for all their issues. However, I think that facing Berrios could be what the doctor ordered. I'll take the Yankees first innings -0.5 at -105.