Boston Red Sox vs. Toronto Blue Jays Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 6/27/2022

Time: 7:07 p.m. ET

Venue: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON

Where to watch: NESN, SNET, TVA Sports, MLB Network

DraftKings: Blue Jays -180, Red Sox +155

BetMGM: Blue Jays-185, Red Sox +150

Caesars: Blue Jays -169, Red Sox +150

Red Sox: 42-31

Blue Jays: 40-32

Don’t look now, but the Boston Red Sox are cooking with gas and they have the flamethrower at the ready. They are blistering right now and have taken a firm control on the AL Wild Card race with their seven-game winning streak well in motion after sweeping the Cleveland Guardians over the weekend.

Now the Red Sox will head to Toronto for an important three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays to continue their nine-game road trip. It’s not as important for the road team as much as it is the home team. Toronto has lost three straight series’ and is coming off having dropped two of three over the weekend to the Milwaukee Brewers.

As it stands, the Red Sox hold the top wild card spot in the American League and have a 1.5-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays and Blue Jays, both tied at 40-32. So if Toronto wants to make some noise and get back into the good graces of the collective baseball eyes, this is a big series against a really good Red Sox team right now.

Boston’s sweep over the Guardians was seen as a shock just because Cleveland had been on such a run over the last few weeks and eventually took over first place in the AL Central for a few days. But a four-game losing streak and some wins from the Minnesota Twins reverted things back to the status quo.

But the Red Sox dominated Cleveland from a pitching standpoint. Boston won by a combined 18-8, including an 8-3 win in the series finale to put them a season-high 11 games over .500. Trevor Story knocked in two RBI to reach 50 this season and 500 in this MLB career, and J.D. Martinez also had two RBI as part of a 3-for-5 day.

Rich Hill threw six strong innings and struck out five, as Boston worked well to get him as high as a 5-0 lead going into the sixth. The Red Sox have won 11 of 13 and are 19-4 this month. It’s insane, really.

"It's not easy to do," Boston manager Alex Cora said of the sweep. "We're good and we have to keep working for what we want to accomplish. It's night and day to the group. Early in the season we were swinging at bad pitches, not walking, striking out a lot, not hitting the ball hard. Now it's the total opposite."

This Boston team doesn’t need to worry about hitting. They’re one of the best hitting teams in baseball even when their top RBI guy is batting just .227 and is near the bottom of the lineup. Rafael Devers is playing like an MVP candidate, Martinez is batting .329, Xander Bogaerts continues to be a hitting machine. Everything is just working well for this group right now, and that’s even with half of their rotation on the IL.

"The double play saved us today," Hill said. "Overall we played great. Great defense. Obviously we did our job at the plate, swinging the bats. The bullpen came in and did a great job."

While Boston’s bats are clicking right now, Toronto’s bats aren’t doing enough. The team as a whole isn’t doing enough and it’s quite concerning, if you ask me. And one person at the forefront of those struggles is Jose Berrios. The young, promising pitcher had yet another terrible outing, lasting just 2.2 innings against the offensive-inept Brewers while giving up eight runs.

Four of those runs alone came on two homers from Rowdy Tellez, the former Blue Jay who loves beating his former team. Tellez’s first shot cut into the 3-0 lead made on Alejandro Kirk’s three-run homer in the first, and then the second gave Milwaukee an 8-3 lead which ended Berrios’ day.

"It's always a worry, but he's got a track record so I'm sure he's going to bounce back," Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. "He's a good big-league pitcher."

The Blue Jays were in this familiar rut last year, then made the trade for Berrios and went on a run. They’re going to need something like that again, maybe, to light a spark in this group. They desperately need it.

You think after all of that, I’m going to go against Boston? There’s no way. Give me the Red Sox in a rout. Until someone can show me a good nine-inning game against the Red Sox, there’s no way. Red Sox win 7-3

Red Sox are 7-14 against division opponents this season.

Red Sox are 433-495 since 1997 as a road underdog.

Blue Jays are 10-1 as a home favorite between -150 and -200 this season.

Red Sox:
Jarren Duran (L) CF
Rafael Devers (L) 3B
J.D. Martinez (R) DH
Xander Bogaerts (R) SS
Alex Verdugo (L) LF
Trevor Story (R) 2B
Franchy Cordero (L) 1B
Christian Vazquez (R) C
Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) RF
SP - Connor Seabold

Blue Jays:
George Springer (R) CF
Bo Bichette (R) SS
Vladimir Guerrero (R) DH
Alejandro Kirk (R) C
Teoscar Hernandez (R) RF
Santiago Espinal (R) 2B
Matt Chapman (R) 3B
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (R) LF
Cavan Biggio (L) 1B
SP - Kevin Gausman

Batting average: Rafael Devers -- .334

Home runs: Rafael Devers -- 17

RBI: Trevor Story -- 50

Wins: Nick Pivetta -- 8

ERA: Nick Pivetta -- 3.25

Batting average: Alejandro Kirk -- .322

Home runs: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. -- 17

RBI: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. -- 43

Wins: Alek Manoah -- 9

ERA: Alek Manoah -- 2.05