The Toronto Blue Jays begin a three-game weekend series with the Texas Rangers on Friday.
The pregame narrative: Texas is in poor form, losing seven of eight games ahead of today’s contest with the AL-leading Blue Jays. Chris Bassitt gets the start at home, and the veteran righty’s been electric at Rogers Centre.
Check out my Blue Jays best bets vs. the Rangers for Aug. 15, featuring predictions on Bassitt and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Blue Jays best bets vs. Rangers
Best bet: Bassitt over 17.5 outs (-110)
There’s a distinct difference between Bassitt at home and on the road:
- Home: 8-0, 2.56 ERA, 9.8 K/9
- Away: 3-6, 6.39 ERA, 7.0 K/9
On Friday, the Rangers are visiting and they’ve been ice cold over the past eight games, averaging just 2.8 runs.
Things haven’t been pretty all season for Texas. The club ranks 25th in runs per game (4.1) and 29th in on-base percentage (.299).
All of that works in favour of Bassitt keeping his pitch count down and going deep into this ballgame.
Over his last seven home starts, he’s averaging 96 pitches thrown.
Key stat: Bassitt is 6-1 against this line in those contests, finishing with exactly 17 outs (5.2 innings) in the outlier.
Jays vs. Rangers picks
Guerrero over 1.5 total bases (+125): It’s officially Guerrero season as the slugging first baseman seems to light MLB on fire as the weather heats up.
Check out his stats over the last 25 games and where they rank in the AL:
- 1.174 OPS (1st)
- .386 batting average (1st)
- 73 total bases (1st)
That includes cashing this wager 16 times.
Jacob deGrom starts for the Rangers, and it’s certainly not the best matchup, as the 37-year-old is putting up a prime 2.86 ERA this season.
But Guerrero has seen him well in the limited sample size. He has two hits in six at-bats with one strikeout.
The Rangers’ ace hardly surrenders free passes as his 5.7% walk rate ranks in the 87th percentile, per Baseball Savant.
That’s good news for this wager and tells me Guerrero will at least have a few offerings to get a hold of.
Blue Jays best bets made at 3:29 p.m. ET on 08/15/2025.
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.