The AL-leading Toronto Blue Jays begin a massive series against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.
The pregame narrative: It’s a battle of the old guard in L.A., where two future Hall of Famers — Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw — will duke it out on the mound. Max Muncy and Bo Bichette are both in excellent form right now, and both should make their mark in SoCal.
Check out my Blue Jays best bets vs. the Dodgers for Aug. 8, including a prop bet on Mookie Betts.
Blue Jays best bets vs. Dodgers
Best bet: Betts under 0.5 runs (-143)
Is Betts having a down year, or has his decline begun?
The seven-time Silver Slugger and 2018 AL MVP has a .670 OPS this year, which is easily the worst of his 12-year career. To put that in perspective, he’s never finished a season with a sub-.800 OPS.
According to Baseball Savant, Betts’ batted ball metrics do a reasonable job of matching the eye test.
- 41st-percentile xBA (.254)
- 32nd-percentile xSLG (.396)
- 15th-percentile hard-hit rate (32.8%)
The Dodgers score the second-most runs in MLB (5.16/game) and Betts typically bats in the No. 2 spot. So you’d think he was cashing his runs prop routinely.
Think again.
Betts is just 46-57 vs. this prop as a starter, which means the under has cashed 55.34% of the time.
He’s also in quite an extended slump right now, posting a .189/.255/.244 slash line since July 6. In that span, Betts failed to score a run in 15 of 22 starts.
There’s definitely more juice on this prop than I’d prefer, and it still feels weird to fade Betts from such a favourable spot in an elite lineup.
But it’s been a largely profitable play this year, and I expect that to continue tonight.
Key stat: Betts is 1-for-7 with a strikeout vs. Scherzer.
Jays vs. Dodgers picks
Bichette over 1.5 total bases (-120): Last season is looking more and more like a massive outlier for Bichette.
The shortstop posted a 70 OPS+ over 81 games in an injury-plagued season. He’s had an OPS+ north of 120 in each of his other six MLB campaigns.
He’s also among the very hottest hitters in baseball right now, batting .400 with a 1.070 OPS over the past month.
Bichette is 13-5 vs. this prop in 18 games since July 20, and he has five multi-hit performances in six games so far in August.
The cherry on top is that Bichette is 2-for-3 with two home runs vs. Kershaw. I expect the two-time all-star to stay dangerous tonight.
Muncy over 1.5 hits/runs/RBI (+100): Muncy with a platoon advantage and a price like this? Sign me up.
- The left-hitting infielder has a .292/.424/.542 slash line against RHPs this season.
- His .553 xSLG ranks in the 96th percentile, and he also has a 95th-percentile hard-hit rate (53.3%).
- Left-hitting batters have a .524 SLG vs. Scherzer.
Muncy has posted a 1.127 OPS in his past 25 games, cashing this bet 15 times in that span.
He missed most of July due to injury but had a monster performance on Tuesday in just his second game back (4-for-5, two home runs).
Blue Jays best bets made at 12:30 p.m. ET on 08/08/2025.
Jordan enjoys writing data-driven game previews and analysis articles — especially for MLB markets or NFL/NBA props. And as a proud Ohio University grad, he’ll always have a soft spot for college sports (especially if the Bobcats are involved). Previous stops include mlb.com, Sportsnet and The Athletic.