Toronto Blue Jays vs. Boston Red Sox MLB Picks, Odds, Predictions 6/11/2021

The Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox meet in an AL East division matchup in MLB action from Fenway Park on Friday night.

The Toronto Blue Jays will look to bounce back from a 5-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox last time out. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Marcus Semien each had an RBI to make up the scoring for the Jays in the loss while Joe Panik and Santiago Espinal each went 2 for 3 at the dish and Teoscar Hernandez and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each had a base hit as well to cap off Toronto’s offense as none of the Blue Jays’ eight hits went for extra bases in the losing effort. Hyun-Jin Ryu took the loss, falling to 5-4 on the year after allowing three earned runs on five hits while striking out three over six innings of work. Ross Stripling will start here and is 2-3 with a 4.71 ERA and 43 strikeouts this season. In his career, Stripling is 2-2 with a 5.00 ERA and 18 strikeouts against Boston.

The Boston Red Sox will look to build off of a 12-8 win over Houston on Thursday. Christian Arroyo had a home run and four RBIs while Christian Vazquez went 3 for 4 with three RBIs. Bobby Dalbec and J.D. Martinez each had two RBIs with Dalbec going 2 for 5 with a double while Martinez had a solo home run. Enrique Hernandez added a pair of doubles with an RBI to round out the scoring for Boston in the victory while Xander Bogaerts went 2 for 4 with a double and Rafael Devers added a pair of hits as well and Hunter Renfroe chipped in a base knock of his own to cap off Boston’s offense as a team in the winning effort. Eduardo Rodriguez gave up six earned runs on six hits while striking out five over 4.2 innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Darwinzon Hernandez got the win in relief to improve to 1-2 on the year as a result. Garrett Richards will start here and is 4-4 with a 3.88 ERA and 58 strikeouts this season. In his career, Richards is 3-5 with a 5.10 ERA and 35 strikeouts against Toronto.

Toronto is 8-3 in their last 11 road games and 2-7 in their last 9 division games while the under is 3-0-1 in their last 4 games against a team with a winning record. Boston is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall and 16-43 in their last 59 home games against a team with a winning record while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 home games. The under is 8-3 in the last 11 meetings between these two teams in Boston.

I get the case that could be made both ways here as both teams have not been all that bad this season. With that said, Stripling and Richards are not pitchers that I’m looking to back in this spot and while Stripling’s been better lately and Richards has been better in a Red Sox uniform, I still think these are two pitchers that are going to get batted around a fair bit on Friday. Give me the over.