The Toronto Blue Jays look for their seventh straight win when they play the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday.
The pregame narrative: Toronto is atop the AL East thanks to an offensive hot streak that shouldn’t be cooling off today. The Angels send Jack Kochanowicz (5.44 ERA) to the mound to try and handle the Jays’ sizzling bats.
Check out my Angels vs. Blue Jays picks for July 5, featuring Addison Barger and Max Scherzer.
Angels vs. Blue Jays picks
Best Bet: Barger over 0.5 RBI (+114)
A few things are working in Bargers’ favour for this wager.
- He’s currently on a tear, batting .289 with a .614 SLG since May 28.
- During that time, he had nine home runs and 22 RBI. That pace would equal 47 HR and 115 RBI over 162 games.
- On Saturday, he’ll face Kochanowicz, whose xERA (4.98) and xBA (.277) rank in the 15th percentile or lower.
The righty also gives up a ton of power. His average exit velocity of 91.4 mph ranks in the fifth percentile.
Barger also has the luxury of hitting cleanup in MLB’s hottest offence. No team has more runs than the Jays over the last 10 games (65).
Key stat: The 25-year-old will have a platoon advantage on Saturday. Barger has an .879 OPS against RHP and a .622 OPS against LHP. He hit all 11 of his home runs off righties.
Quick pick
Scherzer over 15.5 outs (+120): This is a great spot for Scherzer to have his first lengthy start of the season.
Since returning to Toronto’s rotation, the 40-year-old has pitched 5.0 innings in back-to-back starts. But those were against the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians — two offences far better than L.A.’s.
In fact, the Angels own one of the worst offences in baseball. They have the fourth-lowest batting average (.228) in the majors.
They strike out a ton (9.80 times per game) and take walks at the fourth-lowest rate.
Finally, Los Angeles’ hitters have an ugly head-to-head history with Scherzer. As a team, the lineup has a .206 average against the veteran righty with a 42.4% K rate.
And they have just two walks in 99 plate appearances. Everything suggests that “Mad Max” will have a dominant outing.
Blue Jays picks made at 9:57 a.m. ET on 07/05/2025.
Spencer is a true sports junkie. A graduate of the Sports Journalism program at Centennial College, he first joined NorthStar Gaming as an intern in 2023. He is now a contributing writer. He loves finding the edge to bet on in all sports but has a deep passion for the NBA and UFC. Previous stops include Sportsnet.